# The Muse — Victory Odes character guide

> The Muse in Victory Odes by Pindar.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Muse, O Muse, my Muse

**First appearance:** 0001-victory-odes

## Snapshot

The goddess whose voice Pindar begs to wake the lyre, turning a tyrant's horse-race win into a hymn that outlives the dust of Pisa.

## Who they are

Pindar opens his Olympian odes by summoning her directly, asking her to lift the Dorian-strung lyre and crown Hiero's victory with song, so she stands at the hinge between mortal triumph and lasting fame. She is not a character who acts in the plot but the power that makes the plot worth telling, the breath that converts a chariot's dust into a name that flashes from Sicily oversea. Her tension is the poet's own: without her, the ode is silence, and the victor's glory fades like a fire through the night.

## In the story

### [I For Hiero of Syracuse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_odes_se/chapters/i)

Invoked to take up the lyre and inspire the song of victory.

### [VIII For Alkimedon of Aegina](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_odes_se/chapters/viii)

Invoked to awaken memory of past champions and inspire the ode.

### [X For Agesidamus of Locri Epizephyrii](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_odes_se/chapters/x)

Invoked alongside Truth to help atone for Pindar's forgotten debt.

### [XII For Ergoteles of Himera](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_odes_se/chapters/xii)

Implied as the source of poetic inspiration for the ode.

### [I For Hiero of Syracuse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_odes_se/chapters/i)

Invoked to sing the praise of Hiero's victory and the founding of Etna.

### [VIII For Aristomenes of Aegina](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_odes_se/chapters/viii)

Invoked as the source of poetic inspiration for the song.

### [X For Hippokleas of Thessaly](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_odes_se/chapters/x)

Invoked to guide the poet's song and anchor the car of the Muses.

### [III For Aristokleides of Aegina](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_odes_se/chapters/iii)

Invoked as queenly mother to inspire the hymn for Aristokleides' victory.

### [VI For Alkimidas of Aegina](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_odes_se/chapters/vi)

Invoked to waft a gale of glory to the victor and inspire song for the Bassid clan.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_odes_se/chapters/ii)

The Muse is contrasted between the old selfless poetry and the modern love of gain.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_odes_se/characters/the_muse
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_odes_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/victory_odes_se/characters