The Muses
- Looks after
- Astronomy
- Often shown with
- A celestial globe, a compass.
Urania
Οὐρανία
Urania is the Muse of astronomy. Her name means heavenly.
Urania is one of the nine Muses, and her name is a feminine form of ouranios, heavenly. In Hellenistic and Roman times she was assigned to astronomy and the stars, and shown with a globe and a compass.
She is sometimes called the mother of Linus. The name also became a title of Aphrodite, as Aphrodite Urania, the heavenly Aphrodite.
In later art and language
Milton invokes an Urania at the start of Book 7 of Paradise Lost, though he explains that his is a heavenly muse, not the pagan one.
Ancient sources
- Hesiod, Theogony 78