Morganton Municipal Auditorium

Sacred Dance & the Muses, 2004

When he was commissioned to decorate the ceiling in the atrium of the City of Morganton Municipal Auditorium, contemporary fresco master Benjamin F. Long, IV selected the nine Muses of Greek mythology as fitting subjects for the project because of their legendary role in inspiring all human endevors in the arts and sciences. The Muses were of divine parentage, probably the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. They were courtiers of the divinities who inhabited Mount Olympus, and they served as companions of Apollo in his aspect as the god of music.