The Writing-Practice Journal

Original Muses and That Sloth of a Personal Muse

Muses:

In jest, belief, or wishful thinking, we all call on our muses. While each of us may imagine his or her own muse, the real muses existed once upon a time, at least in the minds of the believers in Zeus.

According to ancient Greeks, nine demi-goddesses called muses were there to inspire intellectual work and creativity. Muses were inferior than the gods and goddesses, but they were important in their own right, having descended from Zeus. Zeus stayed with Mnemosyne for nine nights, and from that union, the nine muses were born.

Mnemosyne was the daughter of the titans Gaia and Uranus, and she became the minor oracular goddess of memory and remembrance, as well as the preserver of stories of history and sagas of myth. Mnemosyne also invented language and words.

The nine muses were:
Calliope - muse of epic poetry and eloquence.
Euterpe - muse of lyric poetry and rapturous music.
Erato - muse of erotic poetry.
Clio - muse of history and epic poetry.
Melpomene - muse of tragedy.
Polyhymnia - muse of religious poetry and harmonious song.
Terpsichore - muse of dancing and choral song.
Thalia - muse of comedy and idyllic poetry.
Urania - muse of astronomy.

The nine muses were taught by Apollo and later became his eternal companions.

Aside from the original muses, our personal muses may exist also, even if they dwell only inside our minds. To get our creative process moving, we may call on them; however, I suspect our muses are lazier than us. They like to stretch down and take a nap as often as they can, and they order us to read, to write from prompts, and do all the dirty work ourselves. Once in a blue moon, they'll jump out of their naps and plant an idea in our heads, an idea that seems to occur out of nowhere, and then, they'll go back to sleep and leave us to struggle with that supposedly brilliant idea.

The faulty work ethics of our personal muses leaves me to question if we'd be better of without them.Yet, I am not a big risk taker, so I let my muse slumber as I try to do the work myself. After all, I believe, falsely or not, I am a better worker than that sloth.