Roman Republic Quintus Pomponius Musa

Roman Republic Quintus Pomponius Musa Rome, 66 BC​

Known in Greece as Hercules Musagetes, or leader of the choir of Muses, and appropriately shown here playing a lyre, his worship was often associated with that paid to the nine virgin goddesses of poetry and civilisation. It is difficult to account for this seeming abandonment of Apollo's maiden companions by the God of Song himself to the protection of another and inferior divinity, however such were the contradictions and inconsistencies of the superstitious patchwork which formed the Greco-Roman system of deification.

The subject before us has been reasonably supposed to indicate, by an allegory, that the cultivation of intellectual pursuits rests secure under the guardianship of strength and courage, and that the heroic genius of Hercules can be worthily proclaimed only through the influence of the Muses.