Musaeus

Musaeus or Musaios was the name of three Greek poets.

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The first Musaeus was a mythical seer and priest, the pupil or son of Orpheus, and is said to have been the founder of priestly poetry in Attica. According to Pausanias, he was buried on the Museum hill, south-west of the Acropolis. He composed dedicatory and purificatory hymns and prose treatises, and oracular responses. These were collected and arranged in the time of Peisistratus by Onomacritus, who added interpolations. The mystic and oracular verses and customs of Attica, especially of Eleusis, are connected with his name (Herodotus vii. 6; viii. 96; ix. 43). A Titanomachia and Theogonia are also attributed to him by Gottfried Kinkel (Epicorum graecorum fragmenta, 1878).

Related Topics:
Orpheus - Attica - Pausanias - Acropolis - Hymn - Peisistratus - Onomacritus - Eleusis - Herodotus - Gottfried Kinkel

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Herodotus reports that, during the reign of Pisistratus at Athens, the scholar Onomacritus was charged with compiling the oracles of Musaeus, but that he inserted forgeries of his own devising, which were detected by Lasus of Hermione.

Related Topics:
Herodotus - Pisistratus - Athens - Onomacritus - Lasus of Hermione

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