Musaeus

• A famous Greek poet in the time of Orpheus, Cic. Tusc. 1, 41, 98; id. N. D. 1, 15, 41; Verg. A. 6, 667.—
• II A Roman surname, Inscr. Grut. 701, 3.

(Μουσαῖος), an officer of Antiochus the Great, king of Syria. After the decisive battle of Sipylus, B. C. 190, he came as an ambassador to the Scipios, then at Sardis, to request permission for the king to send commissioners to treat of peace. (Plb. 21.13; Liv. 37.45; App. Syr. 38.) In B. C. 188 Musaeus was again sent by Antiochus to Cn. Manlius Vulso, the Roman proconsul in Asia, to learn the terms on which the peace between his master and the Romans would be finally ratified. (Plb. 22.24; Liv. 38.37; App. Syr. 39.) [E.E]

(Μουσαῖος), literary.

1. A semimythological personage, to be classed with Olen, Orpheus, and Pamphus. He was regarded as the author of various poetical compositions, especially as connected with the mystic rites of Demeter at Eleusis, over which the legend represented him as presiding in the time of Heracles. (Diod. 4.25.) He was reputed to belong to the family of the Eumolpidae, being the son of Eumolpus and Selene. (Philochor. apud Schol. ad Arist. Ran. 1065; Diog. Laert. Prooem. 3.) In other variations of the myth he was less definitely called a Thracian. According to other legends he was the son of Orpheus, of whom he was generally considered as the imitator and disciple. (Diod. 4.25; Serv. ad Virg. Aen. 6.667.) Others made him the son of Antiphemus, or Antiophemus, and Helena. (Schol. ad Soph. Oed. Col. 1047; Suid. s. v. Μουσαῖος.) In Aristotle (Mirab. p. 711a.) a wife Deioce is given him; while in the elegiac poem of Hermesianax., quoted by Athenaeus (xiii. p. 597), Antiope is mentioned as his wife or mistress. Suidas gives him a son Eumolpus. The scholiast on Aristophanes mentions an inscription said to have been placed on the tomb of Musaeus at Phalerus. Pausanias (1.25.8) mentions a tradition that the Μουσεῖον in Peiraeus bore that name from having been the place where Musaeus was buried. Works

We find the following poetical compositions, accounted as his among the ancients:-- 1. Χρησμοί

Χρησμοί, Oracles. (Aristoph. Frogs 1031; Paus. 10.9.11; Hdt. 8.96.) Onomacritus, in the time of the Peisistratidae, made it his business to collect and arrange the oracles that passed under the name of Musaeus, and was banished by Hipparchus for interpolating in the collection oracles of his own making. (Hdt. 7.6; Paus. 1.22.7.) 2. Ὑποθῆκαι

Ὑποθῆκαιa, or precepts, addressed to his son Eumolpus, and extending to the length of 4000 lines (Suid. l.c.). 3. A hymn to Demeter.

This composition is set down by Pausanias (1.22.7) as the only genuine production of Musaeus extant in his day. 4. Ἐξακέσεις νόσων

Ἐξακέσεις νόσων. (Aristoph. Frogs 1031; Plin. Nat. 21.8. s. 21.) 5. Θεογονία

Θεογονία. (Diog. Laert. Prooem. 3). 6. Τιτανογραφία

Τιτανογραφία. (Schol. ad Apoll. Rlod. iii.). 7. Σφαῖρα

Σφαῖρα. (Diog. Laert. l.c.). What this sphaera was, is not clear. 8. Παραλύσεις, Τελεταὶ

Παραλύσεις, Τελεταὶ and Καθαρμοί. (Schol. ad Arist. l.c. ; Plat. Respubl. ii. p. 364, extr.) Verses quoted by Aristotle

Aristotle (Aristot. Pol. 8.5, Hist. Anita. 6.6) quotes some verses of Musaeus, but without specifying from what work or collection. Θεογονία and Σφαῖρα

Some have supposed the Musaeus who is spoken of as the author of the Θεογονία and Σφαῖρα to be a different person front the old bard of that name. But there does not appear to be any evidence to support that view. Hero and Leander

The poem on the loves of Hero and Leander is by a very much later author. Editions

Nothing remains of the poems attributed to Musaeus but the few quotations in Pausanias, Plato, Clemens Alexandrinus, Philostratus, and Aristotle. Further Information

Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. i. p. 119.

2. An ancient Theban lyric poet, the son of Thamyra and Philammon, who, according to Suidas (s. v.), lived considerably before the Trojan war.

3. An epic poet, a native of Ephesus, who lived probably about the middle of the second century B. C. According to Suidas, he wrote a poem entitled Περσηΐς, in ten books, dedicated to Eumenes and Attalus. What Suidas means by the expression, τῶν εἰς τοὺς Περγαμηνοὺς καὶ αὐτοὺς κύκλους, it is not easy to say.

4. A grammarian Works Hero and Leander

The author of the celebrated poem on the loves of Hero and Leander. Nothing is known of his personal history; and the elder Scaliger even supposed that the poem was the work of the ancient Athenian bard. But in many of the manuscripts the author is distinctly called Musaeus the grammarian; and it is now agreed on all hands that the poem is quite a late production. According to Schrader and other critics the author did not live earlier than the fifth century of our era. The general style is quite different from the simplicity of the older poets, and several individual expressions betray the lateness of its origin. The poem was first discovered in the thirteenth century. Editions

Numerous editions of it have been published. The first, with a Latin version by Marcus Musurus, without any indication of the date or place. Of the rest may be mentioned those by Kromayer, Halae Magd. 1721; by Schrader, 1742; by Heinrich, 1793; by Passow, Leipzig, 1810; and by Schaefer, Leipzig 1825. Translations

There are several translations of the poem. In English, by Marlowe, Stapylton, Stirling, &c.; in German, by Stollberg, Passow, &c.; in French, by Marot, &c.; in Italian, by Bernardo Tasso, Bettoni, &c [C.P.M]

(Μουσαῖος). (1) A mythical singer, seer, and priest, who appears especially in Attic legends. He is said to have lived in pre-Homeric times, and to have been the son of Selené and Orpheus or Linus or Eumolpus. Numerous oracular sayings, hymns, and chants of dedication and purification were ascribed to him which had been collected, and also interpolated, by Onomacritus, in the time of the Pisistratidae. His tomb was shown at Athens on the Museum Hill, southwest of the Acropolis (Pausan. i. 22, x. 9). See Eberhard, De Pampho et Musaeo (1864).

(2) A grammarian and Greek poet, who, in the beginning of the sixth century after Christ, wrote, in imitation of Nonnus (q.v.), a short epic of love, on the subject of Hero and Leander, which shows intense warmth of feeling, and has touches that are almost modern. It is edited by Passow (Leipzig, 1810), Schaefer (Leipzig, 1825), and Dilthey (Bonn, 1874). See Schwabe, De Musaeo Nonni Imitatore (Tübingen, 1876).

• an Athenian prophet: Hdt. 7.6, Hdt. 8.96, Hdt. 9.43; Paus. 10.5.6, Paus. 10.12.11
• receives from North Wind the gift of flying: Paus. 1.22.7
• copies Orpheus: Paus. 10.7.2
• composes hymn on Demeter for Lycomids: Paus. 1.22.7, Paus. 4.1.5
• his oracles: Paus. 10.9.11, Paus. 10.12.11
• poems attributed to him: Paus. 1.14.3, Paus. 1.22.7, Paus. 10.5.6
• buried on Museum hill at Athens: Paus. 1.25.8
• portrait of: Paus. 1.22.7