The Nine Muses - version I. (1961-63)
The Muses – goddesses of poetry and song and also the patrons of wandering minstrels – were according to Greek mythology the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. They resided in the Parnassus Mountains, where Delphi with its famed shrine to Apollo was based at the foot. They danced and sang under the auspices of Apollo, who was seen as their leader –and known as the Mousagetēs (Muse-leader).
- Clio – the Muse of History, is often shown with a scroll and books,
- Erató – the Muse of Erotic Poetry, carries a lyre,
- Euterpé – the Muse of Lyric Poetry, carries a flute,
- Calliopé – the Muse of Epic Poetry, carries a scroll and a writing tablet,
- Melpomené – the Muse of Tragedy, is often seen with a tragic maskor a grape wreath,
- Polymnia (Polyhymnia) – the Muse of Sacred Song, Oratory and Rhetoric is shown with a pensive expression and often carries a scroll,
- Terpsichoré – the Muse of Dance, is depicted while dancing and can also carry a lyre,
- Thalia – the Muse of Comedy, holds a comic mask or an ivy wreath,
- Urania – the Muse of Astronomy and Geography carries a celestial globe.
The set of the Nine Muses was modeled in two series, cast in bronze and placed on marble plinths with bronze inscriptions (with a typeface by Milan Hegar). They were awarded in the 1960s as a film prize called the "Musae Spectatorum Pragensium" (The Muses of the Prague Spectators) awarded once a year for 10 years to Czech and foreign artists. For the first time the prize "Muse Melpomene" was awarded in 1965 to the directors Elmar Klos and Jan Kadár for their Oscar-winning film "The Shop on Main Street" (1965).
