- Looks after
- Much learning, as a Muse of the later lists
Polymatheia
Πολυμάθεια
Polymatheia, whose name means much learning, is a Muse named in Plutarch's Table Talk, outside the standard nine.
Family at a glance
No parents are recorded for this figure in the sources used here.
Hesiod names nine Muses, and Polymatheia is not one of them. She belongs to the longer, looser lists in which writers found Muses for particular kinds of knowledge. Plutarch's Table Talk, a collection of dinner-party conversations, discusses the names of the Muses and is where she is named.
The word polymatheia was already familiar in Greek. The philosopher Heraclitus, around 500 BCE, said that much learning does not teach understanding, and the saying was still quoted centuries later by Diogenes Laertius. A Muse called Much Learning can therefore be read as a name for what Greek writers admired in memory and training, and also warned about.
No myths are told of her, and she has no known parents or cult. Her page is short for that reason.
In later art and language
English polymath comes from the related Greek polymathes, meaning one who has learned much.
The ancient evidence for Polymatheia is limited, so this page is short on purpose.
Ancient sources
- Plutarch, Table Talk (Quaestiones convivales) 9.14
- Diogenes Laertius 9.1 (quoting Heraclitus)
The family of Polymatheia
Descended from
No parents recorded
Brothers and sisters
None listed on this site
Partners
None recorded
Children
None recorded