How light the strain when, decked in vernal bloom,
Thalia tuned her lyre of melody,
And when Terpsichore, with iris-plume,
Bade o'er her lute her rosy fingers fly;
'T was pleasure all--the fawns in mingled choirs,
Glanced on the willing nymphs their wanton fires,
Joy shook his glittering pinions as he flew;
The shout of rapture and the song of bliss,
The sportive titter and the melting kiss,
All blended with the smile, that shone like early dew.
excerpt from An Ode To Music by James G. Percival
In
Greek mythology, Terpsichore is the patron of
choral songs and
dancing. She is the daughter of
Zeus and
Mnemosyne along with her eight sisters, the
muses. She is also the mother of the
Sirens.
She is the best known of the muses. Her name has become absorbed into the english language as the word, terpsichorean which means "pertaining to dancing".