The Chief Muse, and How the Nine Were Divided

In the earliest sources the nine Muses are a chorus invoked together, daughters of Memory who inspire all song, and no single art is assigned to any one of them; Hesiod, who names all nine at the opening of the Theogony, singles out Calliope only as the eldest and the one who attends kings, giving them the persuasive speech that settles disputes. The tidy scheme by which each Muse governs one art, Calliope epic, Clio history, Erato love poetry, and so on, is a later systematization, largely Hellenistic and Roman, and the assignments still vary between ancient authors.

Calliope's association with epic and her motherhood of Orpheus made her the natural patron invoked at the head of the grandest verse, and Latin and Renaissance poets from Virgil to Milton call on her by name where they announce a high theme. Her emblem, the writing tablet and stylus, marks the shift from sung to written poetry.