Poets of desire and those writing a letter they may never send
Symbols
The lyreThe roseThe arrowThe small bow
Mythology Summary
Erato is one of the nine Muses named by Hesiod (Theogony 76-79), daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, and her name carries the sense of the lovely and the desired. The allocation of a subject to each Muse is later than Hesiod; Erato becomes the Muse of love poetry and lyric desire in the Hellenistic and Roman lists, shown with a lyre. She was honoured as one of the college, at the Helicon sanctuary and the Thespian Mouseia (Pausanias 9.29-30).
Modern Practice
The Muse of the addressed song: invoked by poets of desire, and by anyone writing a letter that will not be sent. The work is craft rather than wish - the poem is the offering, and it has to be good.