Vesna Grujin’s oil painting of "Muses Dancing on Mount Helicon" (Fall 1998).  As the daughters of Zeus and Memory, they serve as intermediaries between the gods and mortals.  Especially involved in providing eloquence for Zeus-chosen kings to settle disputes and inspiring bards to sing the poems that take away grief, Hesiod tells how they came to him one day as he was shepherding his flock of sheep, gave him a staff of laurel and “breathed into him an immortal voice to celebrate what will be and what came before and to hymn the race of the immortals” (Theogony, 30-33).’’   They also state what has been called the first poetic manifesto: they tell Hesiod that they know how to speak lies that seem like the truth, and when they want to, they know how to proclaim the truth (27-28).