Extract

Musaeus (1) (Μουσαῖος), a mythical singer with a descriptive name (‘He of the Muses’). He belongs particularly to *Eleusis, where he is either autochthonous (see autochthons) or an immigrant from *Thrace, the country of mythical singers. He is father or son of *Eumolpus, the eponymous hero of the chief sacerdotal family of Eleusis, and his wife Deiope has her grave beneath the Eleusinian Telesterion; the couple and their son Eumolpus are shown on a red-figure vase of the Meidias Painter (Beazley, ARV2 1313. 7).He is closely connected with *Orpheus, whom he follows together with *Hesiod and *Homer in a canonical list (see canon) of the quintessential Greek poets (deriving from *Hippias(2) of Elis, DK 86 B 6). *Plato(1) called Orpheus and Musaeus descendants of the Moon (Resp. 364e); to others, Musaeus is Orpheus' son (Diod.