The corridor leading to the north from the Main Entrance Hall
is, as has been said, similar in design to that opening into the
Congressional Reading Rooms. The design of the floor and ornament
upon the arches is somewhat different, however. The tympanums which
it contains are ornamented by a series of paintings, by Mr. Edward
Simmons, representing the nine _Muses_.
=Mr. Simmons’s Paintings.=--The Muses, according to the Greek
mythology, were the goddesses of the various departments of Art,
Poetry, and Science. Apollo, the God of Song, was their father, and
Mnemosyne (Memory) their mother. Their names, given in the order in
which they occur in Mr. Simmons’s series, beginning at the south end
of the corridor, were as follows: Melpomene, Clio, Thalia, Enterpe,
Terpsichore, Erato, Polyhymnia, Urania, and Calliope. Melpomene was
the Muse of Tragedy; Clio, of History; Thalia, of Comedy and Bucolic
Poetry; Enterpe, of Lyric Song; Terpsichon, of Dancing; Erato, of
Erotic Poetry; Polyhymnia, of Sacred Song; Urania, of Astronomy; and
Calliope, of Epic Poetry.
[Illustration: MELPOMENE.--BY EDWARD SIMMONS.]
In Mr. Simmons’s panels, each of the Muses is shown as a seated
figure. On either side a laurel wreath is displayed, as the general
symbol of intellectual pursuits, and the background is diversified
by curving lines of smoke proceeding from the flame of a torch or
a censer--thus signifying the inspiration of Art and Poetry. In
several of the tympanums the Muse is accompanied by little geniuses
who serve to bring out the special character of the central figure.
In the panel devoted to Thalia the genius is a satyr, with goat’s
legs, and carrying a pair of Pan’s pipes. The Muse playfully catches
him in a fold of her garment--the whole suggesting the rustic
sportiveness of the early Greek Comedy. Certain of the panels, also,
contain various distinguishing objects. Melpomene, for example, is
accompanied by a tragic mask; Clio by a helmet, for the warlike
exploits recorded by History; Thalia, by a comic mask; Urania by a
celestial globe. Terpsichore is represented as if swaying to the
music of the dance, and is striking a pair of cymbals. Erato is nude,
and bears a rose--the flower of love--in her hand. Polyhymnia holds
an open book in her lap. One of the geniuses in the tympanum of
Calliope holds a scroll, and the other some peacock’s feathers--the
latter symbolical, perhaps, of the dignity and beauty of the Epic.