Apollo instructs a muse
The beginning of the idea
Balanchine’s Apollon Musagète (Apollo leader of the Muses) shows the newly born god becoming a man god, and teaching three of his nine Muses the skills by which each is known. The idea for that ballet goes back to at least the 5th century BC Greece, as in this drinking cup where the young god teaches a Muse whose special skill is, like his, in playing the lyre and singing. This Muse is probably Cleio, the muse of epics like the Iliad. As a god of the perfection of human form, Apollo is most often depicted nude.
