Myth & LegendGreek → English
Clio
/ˈklaɪoʊ/proper noun
The Muse of history in Greek myth, and a given name taken from her.
The Greek roots
Κλειώ
Kleiṓ
she who makes famous
κλέος
kléos
fame, glory
Literally: “the proclaimer of glory”
The story of the word
κλέος is the undying fame Homeric heroes trade their lives for, and it is what a poet, not a soldier, actually delivers: without the song there is no glory. Clio was shown with a scroll or a chest of books, the record-keeper among the nine Muses. The root hides in a whole shelf of Greek names, Pericles famed all round, Sophocles famed for wisdom, Heracles glory of Hera.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
PericlesSophoclesHeraclesDamocles
In a sentence
Historians used to invoke Clio the way sailors invoked a favourable wind.