Muses

Satires (Persius)

• attestation: Persius renounces the Muses of Mount Helicon and the waters of Pirene as inspirations for his poetry (Satires (Persius) > The Prologue)

  "The maidens of Mount Helicon, and the blanching waters of Pirene, I give up to the gentlemen round whose busts the clinging ivy twines"

• attestation: Persius compares mercenary poets to parrots and magpies, suggesting that hunger, not the Muses, drives their verse (Satires (Persius) > The Prologue)

  "If only the enticing hope of money were to flash upon them, you would believe that raven poets and magpie poetesses were singing the pure nectar of the muses."