Musarion oder Die Philosophie der Grazien

Musarion oder Die Philosophie der Grazien, a poem in three books by C. M. Wieland, published in 1768. Set in a fictional Arcadia, it shows how Musarion, the charming representative of grace, tames and converts to a balanced sensualism the resentful, temporarily cynical Phanias. Simultaneously she shows up the hollow pretensions of Cleanth, a stoic, and Theophron, a Pythagorean philosopher. Musarion represents, according to Wieland, the poet's own view of life—‘Ihre Philosophie ist diejenige, nach welcher ich lebe’. The poem, in three books of 1, 441 lines in all, is written in accomplished, freely handled rhyming verse. A translation (with introduction) by T. C. Starnes appeared in 1991.