According to the 2nd-century AD travel writer Pausanias, Aoede /ˈd/ (Ancient Greek: Ἀοιδή, lit.'Song')[1] was thought to be one of the three Muses at Mount Helicon, alongside Mneme and Melete.[2] He writes that the Macedonian Pierus replaced them with the nine Muses.[3] According to Robin Hard, the names Pausanias gives for these three Muses indicate that it is improbable he "is referring to a genuinely ancient tradition".[4] In De Natura Deorum by the Roman writer Cicero, Aoede is described as one of the four oldest Muses, alongside Thelxinoe, Arche, and Melete.[5]

She lends her name to the moon Jupiter XLI, also called Aoede, which orbits the planet Jupiter.[6]

Notes

  1. ^ For this translation, see Hard, p. 206.
  2. ^ Hard, p. 206; Pausanias, 9.29.2.
  3. ^ Pausanias, 9.29.3.
  4. ^ Hard, p. 206.
  5. ^ RE, s.v. Aoide; Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.21 (Rackham, pp. 338–339).
  6. ^ "Aoede - NASA Science". 2017-11-23. Retrieved 2026-05-05.

References