Aoede, Terpsichore, Euterpe

From the “Ellington Echoes” show at Nine Nights of Music: the three young ladies featured at the start of this series.
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The title, of course, is a reference to three of the classical Greek muses: Aoede (Aoide) was the muse of song, Terpsichore was the muse of dance, and Euterpe was the muse of music and lyric poetry. The previous title is also a classical reference, to "The Judgment of Paris", one of the precipitates of the Trojan war--Paris, youngest son of Priam, the king of Troy, was asked to judge a beauty contest between three goddesses, Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. An impossible pickle for any man, but especially so for one who appears to have been as dim as Paris: he picked Aphrodite because she offered him Helen, Menalaus' wife, which pissed off not only Hera and Athena but also (naturally) Menalaus and his fellow Greeks. Much unpleasantness followed, involving burning boats, a big wooden horse, and the sack of Troy. Or so we'd be led to believe by certain apologists for both the Greeks and the Trojans.
What any of this has to do with swing music in St. Paul on a pleasant summer evening, I have no idea; I just kind of like the way these Greek names look and sound (especially "Terpischore" and "Euterpe"; I could say them all day long...). [Hide the verbosity]



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