Work little known of Rousseau, the gallant Muses, heroic ballet of which it composed the words and the music between 1743 and 1745, are one of work to which it was delivered with the most pleasure.

He tells in the Confessions how he arranged in his head “of the songs, the duets, the choruses (...) worthy perhaps of the admiration of the Masters if they had been able to intend them to carry out”.

Work being already advanced at the time of its stay in Venice, it even made there play a few pieces. The first act was devoted to the Cup, the second with Ovide, the last with Anacréon. Of return to Paris, the financial rich person Pouplinière agreed to make represent the Muses at his place, in the presence of the famous Jean-Philippe Rameau, who judged unfortunately strong evil and showed Jean-Jacques of plagiarism of it. On the other hand, the duke of Richelieu, charged to organize the spectacles of the court, was magic and made carry out work at Mr. de Bonneval, Intendant of the menus. He even offered to make it play in front of the king, with the help of the change of one of the acts, that of the Cup, that Rousseau replaced by Hésiode.

Unfortunately, Mrs. of Pouplinière, which swore only by Rameau, there made obstacle. One has the text of the three “entries”, but only the music of Hésiode survived. The opera will be published only in posthumous Oeuvres, in 1781.