a muse mess

political graffiti – foto by smith

number nine #9

i was musing on the muses and was amused to find there are 9. or 18. depends on your back story. one source says they are 9 water nymphs sired by Zeus, king of the gods, out of Mnemosyne, goddess of memory. a second claims they’re more primeval, their father being Uranus and their mother Gaia. a third says both are true, that there are two generations of muses. this leaves 18 muses for 9 muse slots, so they’re going to have to fight it out in a game of mortal muse-ical chairs.

i was looking for inspiration and thought “aha – it’s the muse’s job to inspire so look em up. see what makes em tick.” disappointingly dry stuff.

1 Calliope – chief of the muses and muse of epic or heroic poetry
2 Clio – muse of history
3 Erato – muse of love or erotic poetry, lyrics, and marriage songs
4 Euterpe – muse of music and lyric poetry
5 Melpomene – muse of tragedy
6 Polyhymnia – muse of sacred song, oratory, lyric, singing and rhetoric
7 Terpsichore – muse of choral song and dance
8 Thalia – muse of comedy and bucolic poetry
9 Urania – muse of astronomy

closest i can come for my own use are selected bits and pieces. i’ll take #5 for tragedy, the 1st half of #8 for comedy, a slice of #2 for the past, the lyric of #6, and the love of #3 (with a dash of the erotic).

other than that, i can’t find much to make this muse muss interesting. looks to me like they’re laying down on the job.

graffiti – foto by smith