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| Lovis Corinth The Weapons of Mars 1910 oil on canvas Belvedere Museum, Vienna |
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| Ancient Greek Culture Venus and Cupid resisting Pan 100 BC marble (excavated on Delos) National Archaeological Museum, Athens |
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| Antico (Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi) Goddess of the Via Traiana ca. 1500 bronze (partly gilt) Bode Museum, Berlin |
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| Enea Vico Flora ca. 1561 engraving Hamburger Kunsthalle |
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| attributed to Benedetto Bordone Altar of Priapus (from the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of Francesco Colonna published by Aldus Manutius in Venice) 1499 woodcut Hamburger Kunsthalle |
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| Hendrik Goltzius The Muse Urania 1592 engraving Morgan Library, New York |
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| Hendrik Goltzius The Muse Thalia 1592 engraving Morgan Library, New York |
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| Hendrik Goltzius The Muse Polyhymnia 1592 engraving Morgan Library, New York |
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| Hendrik Goltzius The Muse Melpomene 1592 engraving Rhode Island School of Design, Providence |
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| Hendrik Goltzius The Muse Erato 1592 engraving Morgan Library, New York |
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| Hendrik Goltzius The Muse Calliope 1592 engraving Morgan Library, New York |
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| Hendrik Goltzius The Muse Clio 1592 engraving Morgan Library, New York |
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| Charles Meynier Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry 1798 oil on canvas Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
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| Johannes Moreelse Clio, Muse of History ca. 1630 oil on canvas, mounted on panel National Museum, Warsaw |
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| Armand Cambon Muses of Heroic Poetry and of Romantic Poetry 1844 oil on canvas Musée Ingres Bourdelle, Montauban |
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| Odilon Redon The Muse ca. 1890-95 drawing Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands |
Agamemnon: Daughter of Leda, guardian of my house, you have made a speech that was like my absence – you stretched it out to a great length; but to be fittingly praised is an honour that ought to come to me from others.* For the rest, do not pamper me as if I were a woman; do not fall to the ground before me and utter open-mouthed cries in the manner of a barbarian; and do not strew my path with clothing and thereby make it invidious. It is gods, you know, who should be honoured with such objects; to my mind, for a mortal to tread on beautiful embroideries cannot be anything but perilous. I tell you to revere me like a man, not a god. It is cryingly obvious that the words "embroidered" and "doormat" don't go well together; and good sense is the greatest of god's gifts. A man should be called fortunate only when he has finished his life in the prosperity that all desire. If I am one who will act consistently on those principles, I have nothing to fear.
– Aeschylus, from Agamemnon (458 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)
*The point is (i) that a man should not be publicly praised by a member of his own family (cf. Pindar fr. 181), since their praise might be thought to stem merely from affection or deference, and perhaps also (ii) that it is unseemly for a woman to make public speeches.