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
The White Goddess "The Golden Fleece". He then left the book to focus on "King Jesus," a historical novel about the life of Jesus. Returning to "The Roebuck in the Thicket", he renamed it "The Three-Fold Muse", before finishing it and retitling it as "The White Goddess". In January 1946 he sent it to the publishers, and in May 1948 it was published in the UK, and in June 1948 in the US, as "The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth". Graves described "The White Goddess" as "a historical grammar of the language of poetic myth". The book draws from the