To celebrate Uncommon Instrument Awareness Day, we’d like to share ‘Clio’ by William Etty.
The painting depicts the Goddess Clio, also spelled Kleio, one of the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, known as the Muses.
Clio, the ‘proclaimer’, is the muse of history and is often depicted with an open scroll, a stone tablet or a chest of books. Less commonly she is recognised as the muse of lyre playing, and is depicted holding or playing the instrument, as Etty has done here.
rguartandheritage.wordpress.com 