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The Muse: Difference between revisions
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In [[Greek Mythology]], there is a subset of spirits/goddesses under the guidance of Apollo known as muses. These entities exist to seek out creative people and inspire them to create great works of art. In a sense, this posits that all great works of art are linked to the divine and their creators are merely vessels for which divine forces can channel their energy.
This concept is often invoked by many a real life creator by attributing a real life person special to them as their "personal muse". Usually occurs with a female muse for a male creator, but the inverse (or a combination thereof) is not too uncommon. If said woman is an actress, she'll be cast in the main female role in every one of the director's movies, at least until their relationship breaks down.
Of course, art often mirrors life in this regard, and many fictional artists have muses of their own--sometimes, in fact, literal Muses from classical Greek mythology.
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{{examples|Examples of real-life muses:}}
* Beatrice to Dante. Even after her death and he was married to someone else, he ''still'' wrote about her.
* Laura to Petrarch.
* Alma Mahler, to more than one man, most notably Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius, and Franz Werfel. And [[Tom Lehrer|one]] she never met.
* [[Marlene Dietrich]] to Joseph [[The Von Trope Family|Von]] Sternberg
* Edie Sedgwick to [[Andy Warhol]]
** See also [[Bob Dylan]]'s entry below.
** And don't forget [[The Velvet Underground|Lou Reed]] with "All Tomorrow's Parties."
* [[David Fincher]] to [[Brad Pitt]], and vice versa.
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** Several of [[Bryan Ferry]]'s songs both with [[Roxy Music]] and as a solo artist were about Jerry Hall, including at least one about her leaving him for Mick Jagger.
* [[Nick Cave]] sought much creativity from Anita Lane during his tenure in The Birthday Party and throughout The Bad Seeds.
* Rosanna Arquette inspired the ''Rosanna'' by Toto and ''In Your Eyes'' by Peter Gabriel
* Bob Dylan had several muses, including Edie Sedgwick who he wrote "Like A Rolling Stone" and "Just Like A Woman" about, Joan Baez, Suze Rotcho and Sara Lowndes who he wrote two albums about (including the incredibly heartfelt and desperate song "Sara", from ''Desire'').
** It should be noted that "Like A Rolling Stone" has been discussed to no end, and to this day there are many likely candidates as to who inspired Dylan to write it.
** Considering the brutal [[Take That]] which these and "Positively 4th Street" are, some of them also probably would rather not to have been Dylan's muse.
* Roy Orbison's wife Claudette inspired the songs ''Claudette'' and ''Pretty Woman''
* The Suede song ''Animal Lover'' and the Blur album ''13'' were both inspired by Justine Frischman
* Patti Boyd was a muse to [[George Harrison]] and [[Eric Clapton]]
** She was a muse for Clapton while she was ''still married'' to his good friend Harrison. ("Layla")
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* Maggie Cheung to Olivier Assayas
* Fanny Brawne to [[John Keats]]
* [[Pedro Almodovar]] has Carmen Maura and [[
* Frances McDormand to (her husband) [[The Coen Brothers|Joel Coen]]
* [[Gender Flip]]: Tom LeFroy to [[Jane Austen]]. He was partially the inspiration for [[Pride and Prejudice|Mr. Darcy]].
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* Sarah Brightman to [[Andrew Lloyd Webber]]
* [[Tim Burton]] and Lisa Marie...and [[Helena Bonham Carter]]. And [[Johnny Depp]].
* Peter Pears to Benjamin Britten.
* [[Alfred Hitchcock]] considered [[Grace Kelly]] to be his muse.
* [[Milla Jovovich]] to Luc Besson until they divorced. Now she is Paul W.S. Anderson's muse in the ''[[Resident Evil (film)|Resident Evil]]'' [[Money, Dear Boy|series.]]
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=== Invocations to Muses ===
* Homer invokes the Muse (probably Calliope) at the start of both ''[[The Iliad]]'' and ''[[Odyssey|The Odyssey]]''.
* [[Virgil]] invokes a muse both at the beginning and middle of ''[[The Aeneid]]''.
* Dante doesn't invoke the muses until the second part of ''[[The Divine Comedy]]'', but at the beginning of ''Paradiso'', the third part, he invokes ''all nine'' '''plus''' Apollo himself.
* [[John Milton]] asks for Urania, Muse of astronomy (and thus, knowledge of God's creation) to inspire him at the beginning of ''[[Paradise Lost]].''
* Alexander Pope refers now and then to a muse in ''[[Literature/The Rape Of The Lock|The Rape Of The Lock]],'' which was based on the tussle over the [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?|haircut of his friend Arabella Fermor]].
* Dan Simmons's ''[[Ilium]]'' opens with an invocation to the Muse by the narrator, since it's based partially on the ''Iliad''. The invocation starts out by mirroring the opening of the ''Iliad'', but degenerates into a vicious rant against the Muse, who is an actual character in the story and something of a bitch.
* This, after Colin Meloy's over-educated literary fashion, was used at the beginning of [[The Decemberists]]' "The Perfect Crime No. 2," as follows:
{{quote|Sing, muse, of the passion of the pistol
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* Does ''not'' happen with the sculptor in ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'' - while he does have a muse that apparently inspires him, instead of being a beautiful girl, it's a [[Pokémon]].
** An ''adorable'' Pokemon.
* In ''[[Sunday in The Park With George]],'' Georges' relationship with Dot is like this: but he's also increasingly distant and cold to her, so she eventually leaves him. That doesn't stop him from making her the star of his most famous painting.
* In ''[[The Dreamer]]'' issue #11, Beatrice's voice teacher invokes this as the reason why Beatrice is singing particularly well during their session, with a [[Gender Flip]].
* Speaking of Pokemon, there actually ''is'' a pokemon that is the equivalent to the artistic muse (more specifically, those related to music and dancing) that has been introduced in the newest generation, ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]''. It looks very female, [[Purely Aesthetic Gender|but is genderless for some reason]].
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* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', muses are the most stable theme/RunningJoke. E.g. [http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2295 this] mini-arc and the page after it. [http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=1788 Or this one.]
* The writer's muse in ''[[Film, Film, Film]]'' is rather unreliable in her appearance.
* In ''[[Peanuts]]'', Lucy ''wants'' to be this to Schroeder. And note that she did inspire at least one of his compositions--"The Fussbudget Sonata".
* In ''[[Free Soul]]'', Keito's creation Angie is this to her.
* Jennie for Eben in ''[[Portrait of Jennie]]''
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