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I thought Muses were patrons of all arts. I knew modern arts like photography or cinema would be attributed by extension to a "visual arts" muse. I thought there were "classical arts" painting and writing Muses.

I just re-read about them and found the 9 muses only covered things like poetry, music, singing, tragedy, comedy, history, and astronomy.

Are there no Muses for the novelist or the painter?

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  • I knew modern arts like photography or cinema would be attributed by extension to a "visual arts" muse huh? The ancient greeks didn't have photography or cinema.
    – user62
    Commented Sep 11, 2016 at 20:33
  • @Reed then why are you mentioning photography/cinema in a question about ancient greek mythology?
    – user62
    Commented Sep 11, 2016 at 21:13
  • Modern arts always get folded into ancient categories, like cinema being the 7th Art. That's why i wrote "attributed by extension"
    – Reed -SE is a Fish on Dry Land
    Commented Sep 13, 2016 at 20:37

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The short answer for this question is no. There technically aren't Muses assigned to painting or novelists. However, that doesn't mean that they aren't governed by a God or Goddess.

Athena is known to be the Goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, mathematics, strength, war strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill.

So if there isn't a Muse for a particular art form, Athena is your girl. Other Gods and Goddesses are also Patrons of certain art forms, like Apollo, but there is a Muse for the poetry and the song, unlike for painting.

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  • i hadn't though about patron gods, but is it the same? the muses, at least in a platoniistic view, where conduits to the divine, they didn't inspire but possesse the artists. The artist was no the creator, but the vehicule through which gods expressed temselves via muses.
    – Reed -SE is a Fish on Dry Land
    Commented Sep 12, 2016 at 22:54

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