Excerpt:
With these words Virgil invokes the Muses, that they may disclose the secrets of the sky, the eclipses and the phases of the moon: this particular task is traditionally set to Urania, Muse of Astronomy. She is the one who elevates man's thought from terrestrial to celestial objects, giving him harmony and peace.
Two are the main versions of the myth of Urania, deity who derives her name from Ouranos (sky): according to the Herodotean tradition she is daughter of Sky and Light, corresponding to the Assyrian Mylitta, to the Phoenician and Carthaginian Ashera (Astaroth), to the Arabian Alilat (from the Arabic a-lilat = night) and to the Scythian goddess Artimpara. This tradition identifies Urania with Aphrodites Urania, or celestial Venus; Hesiod probably knew the oriental tradition himself, as he refers to Aphrodite as Uranus' daughter ( Theog., 989).