²

Looking at the original muses, I discovered they are all related to music in some way. Given that my art is almost entirely visual, and that modern interpretations of the word muse differ somewhat from this idea, I have decided to somewhat broaden the scope that these 9 beings were given in Greek mythology. I'm also renaming them because I'm doing this with the aim of including a pseudo-mythological aspect to my avatar.

The 9 muses redux

Calliope == Callias
'beautiful of speech'
Chief of the muses and muse of epic or heroic poetry
My interpretation: the muse of epic or heroic themes

Clio == Clio
'the glorious one'
The muse of history
My interpretation: the muse of historical themes (war, depression etc.)

Erato == Eratos
'the amorous one'
Muse of love or erotic portry, lyrics, and marriage songs
My interpretation: the muse of romance

Euterpe == Euras
'Well pleasing'
Muse of music and lyric poetry
My interpretation: the muse of art for arts sake

Melopomene == Meloras
'chanting one'
Muse of tragedy
My interpretation: the muse of death and related themes

Polyhymina == Parios
'singer of many hymns'
Sacred song, oratory, singing and rhetoric
My interpretation: the muse of religion and taboo

Terpischore == Teras
'the blossoming one'
Comedy
My interpretation: basically the same

Urania == Uros
'celestial one'
Muse of astronomy
My interpretation: the muse of exploration

This redefining of muses means that I can take my ideas a bit further. My characters design has a symbol on his forehead. This means that he can belong to one of these muses as a kind of disciple from an 'order' following one of the above concepts. I like this idea because it combines the modern interpretation of the muse concept with the ancient one. It is this kind of detail that will give this idea life I hope.
Having talked to Ben today, I think I will just have the sword and the book as a kind of symbol of office, using the symbol on the book and the silhouette of the muse on the sword as references to the original design. Making the design 'pop' will be an interesting challenge I think, as neither a sword or a book are amazing subject matters in themselves. At least my final concept stage is something I can be happy about!