Thalia - Definition and Overview

For other uses, see Thalia (disambiguation).

In Greek mythology, Thalia ("good cheer") was the muse of comedy and pastoral poetry. She was a rural goddess with the attributes of a comic mask and a shepherd's crook. Her names came from θάλλεω, meaning "to bloom". By the god Apollo came the corybantes, priests who castrated themselves in accordance to the goddess Cybele.

Thalia was also the name of one of the Charites, and the name of a nymph who was the mother of the Palici with Zeus or Hephaestus. The nymph Thalia may have been the same as the Muse or Charite.