海角大神

鈥淭his thing belongs in a museum!鈥�

If you hear these words, and if 鈥渢his thing,鈥� whatever it is, belongs to you, have you been insulted 鈥� or complimented?

It depends on who鈥檚 talking, and about what. If a snarky computer tech is giving his assessment of the aging laptop you need help with, you鈥檝e probably been insulted.

If the speaker is someone who鈥檚 admiring your fine china teapot, or perhaps a silver bowl that鈥檚 been in the family for generations, you鈥檝e been given a compliment.

There鈥檚 a certain ambiguity in 鈥渕useum status,鈥� isn鈥檛 there? Some things 鈥渂elong in a museum鈥� because they鈥檙e no longer useful in their original purpose. Others belong there because their beauty and the skill and art that went into their making should be preserved, celebrated, and made available to the public.

The other day, pondering which summer blockbuster museum shows I could squeeze in before Labor Day, I stumbled upon an etymological truth: The original sense of the word that came into English as museum did not refer to collections of objects in dusty cabinets.

Rather, a museum was originally a 鈥渟eat or shrine of the Muses,鈥� as the Online Etymology Dictionary explains. The word came from a Greek word, transliterated as mouseion, meaning 鈥減lace of study, library or museum, school of art or poetry.鈥�

The dictionary adds, 鈥淓arliest use in reference to English institutions was of libraries (such as the British Museum); sense of 鈥榖uilding to display objects鈥� first recorded 1680s.鈥�

The Muses, let鈥檚 recall, were daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. She was one of the Titans, second-tier deities in ancient Greek mythology. She was the personification of memory, which was a big deal in the days before people had ready access to paper and books and little notes stuck to the fridge door. Memory held it all together.

Of Mnemosyne鈥檚 nine daughters with Zeus, Calliope was the chief muse, of eloquence and epic poetry. Clio was the muse of history.聽

Euterpe was the muse of music. And yes, music means, etymologically, 鈥渙f or pertaining to the Muses.鈥� The Online Etymology Dictionary notes that in classical Greece, music referred to 鈥渁ny art in which the Muses presided, but especially music and lyric poetry.鈥�

Erato had jurisdiction over lyric and love poetry, Melpomene over tragedy, Polyhymnia over sacred music, Terpsichore over dance, and Thalia over comedy. Urania was the muse of astronomy. The ancients obviously sliced and diced the intellectual landscape differently than we would today.聽

And the connection between epic poetry and traveling circuses? Calliope literally means 鈥渂eautiful-voiced.鈥� The name was first applied to a steam-whistle keyboard organ around 1858.

Today鈥檚 museums, with their multimedia displays, traveling exhibitions, summer concerts, and yes, even gift shops selling 鈥渢ry this at home鈥� art supplies, are so much more than dusty cabinets. We might say they鈥檙e returning to their (etymological) roots as the places where we invite the Muses in.