Museums: In the beginning (part 1 of 6)

"- begin thou, unforgetting Clio, for all the ages are in thy keeping, and all the storied annals of the past."

— Statius, (Publius Papinius Statius ca. 45-96)
Thebaid, book 10 628-630

In Greek mythology the Muses were goddesses who inspired creativity in humans. Originally three in number, they grew by the late Hellenistic period to nine, all daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, and each in charge of a specific creative field. Clio was the muse of written history.
















The Muse Clio, lower left.
The Nine Muses
, Roman mosaic, 1st century BC
 from the Great Master's Palace, Rhodes.
In the collection of the Archaeological Museum of Cos, Cos, Greece.


The Royal Library of Alexandria in Egypt was once the largest in the ancient world, containing 700,000 volumes. It was also a teaching institution and depository for objects. Over time it grew to surround the original temple of the Muses (or Museion in Greek), which was built in the 3rd century BC. The Roman conquest of Egypt, earthquakes and fires, the rise of Christianity and finally the Muslim conquest of 642 pushed the library into the realm of myth.

(Read about Wonder Rooms in the next post on Museums)