Pierides
Americanplural noun
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the Muses.
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nine Thessalian maidens who challenged the Muses to a singing contest, lost, and were changed into magpies for insulting the victors.
plural noun
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the Muses See Muse
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nine maidens of Thessaly, who were defeated in a singing contest by the Muses and turned into magpies for their effrontery
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"Thy singer has learned his art from a teacher heavenlier than the Pierides, and its name is Hope."
From Pausanias, the Spartan The Haunted and the Haunters, an Unfinished Historical Romance by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
I remember that, in "The Pursuits of Literature,"—a satirical poem once universally famous,—the lines about Mnemosyne and her daughters, the Pierides, are cited as exhibiting matchless sublimity.
From Autobiographical Sketches by De Quincey, Thomas
I wander afield, thriving in sturdy thought, Through unpathed haunts of the Pierides, Trodden by step of none before.
From On the Nature of Things by Leonard, William Ellery
Constitutionally vigorous and daily refreshed by draughts from the pellucid springs of the Pierides, they led a life of exuberant health, as the vital statistics of the neighbourhood would abundantly show.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, June 16, 1920 by Various
The Pierides were signally defeated, and were transformed by the Muses into singing birds, as a punishment for having dared to challenge comparison with the immortals.
From Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by Berens, E.M.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
