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
Poetry and mated with the goddess Inanna to ensure fertility and prosperity; it is considered the world's oldest love poem. An example of Egyptian epic poetry is "The Story of Sinuhe" (c. 1800 BCE). Other ancient epic poetry includes the Greek epics, the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey"; the Avestan books, the "Gathic Avesta" and the "Yasna"; the Roman national epic, Virgil's "Aeneid"; and the Indian epics, the "Ramayana" and the "Mahabharata". Epic poetry, including the "Odyssey", the "Gathas", and the Indian "Vedas", appears to have been composed in poetic form as an aid to memorization and oral transmission, in prehistoric and