Parnassus
a mountain ridge of Greece, eighty miles northwest of Athens. Its highest summit is 8,068 feet above sea level. The oracle of Delphi was situated near its southern base. In Greek legend Parnassus was the home of Apollo, the muses, and the nymphs, hence the source of inspiration for music and poetry. A painting in the Louvre, Paris, represents Apollo as playing, while the muses dance. Mercury stands beside Pegasus, the winged horse of the muses. Venus and Mars stand on an elevation with Cupid, who is in the act of shooting arrows into Vulcan's cave. Allusions to Parnassus are frequent in literature. Emerson compiled a volume of choice verse, which he called Parnassus. In the Fable for Critics, Lowell speaks of himself:
There is Lowell, who's striving Parnassus to climb,
With a whole bale of isms tied together with rhyme.
With a whole bale of isms tied together with rhyme.
Volume IV · Aiton’s Encyclopedia