Muse of comedy and idyllic poetry.

Thalia can refer to four distinct entities in Greek mythology, two of whom were daughters of Zeus, and a third of whom bore him sons. The name Thalia, or Thaleia, (pronounced /θə'laɪə/) is spelled Θάλεια in Greek and derives from the same stem as θάλλειν "to bloom".

The Muse

Thalia was a rustic goddess, the Muse of comedy and idyllic poetry. In this context, her name means “flourishing,” because the praises in her songs flourish through time.¹ Thalia was the daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the eighth-born of the nine Muses. Her children by Apollo were the Corybantes. In art, Thalia was portrayed holding a comic mask, a shepherd’s staff, or a wreath of ivy.

Percy Jackson & and the Olympians

Thalia appears in the second and third books of the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, written by Rick Riordan. In the books, her father, Zeus, turned her into a pine tree, while Thalia was warding off monsters from supposedly there to hurt her friends. She stayed as a tree until Percy Jackson, along with Annabeth Chase, Grover Underwood, and Percy's half-brother, Tyson rescue the Golden Fleece and turn it into Half-Blood Hill. They use the fleece's forbidden powers to heal the tree from a poison, that is killing the magical borders. The Fleece works too well and brings Thalia back into human form. In the book, she has a more frightning personality, unlike her namesake. (ironicly enough)

References

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