Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse paintings of Melpoméne, she is represented with a tragic mask and also often holds in her other hand a knife or club. In Greek mythology, she is the daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who had eight other daughters, Melpoméne's sisters and the eight other muses are: Calliope, muse of epic poetry; Clio, muse of history; Euterpe, muse of flute playing; Terpsichore, muse of dancing; Erato, muse of erotic poetry; Thalia muse of comedy; Polyhymnia, muse of hymns; and Urania, muse of astronomy. Reynolds was inspired not only by Sarah Siddons' extreme talent to embody the tragic heroine in Macbeth, but
Yemenite Jewish poetry of Muslim "Ḥumaynī" poetry in Yemenite-Jewish poetry, although he was not the first Jewish poet who wrote in the "Ḥumaynī" style. It may be assumed that he not only took from "Ḥumaynī" poetry the parameters related to the folk register of the Arabic language and to the lenient approach in relation to metre and to its bold use of erotic imagery to describe the love of God, but also took the melodies by which Muslims had performed their singing. There is evidence that Jews occasionally sang erotic poems of Muslims–known as "ash‘ār"–a matter that provoked in its wake harsh criticism