“For Mnemosyne, who rules over the hills
of Eleutherai, bore the Muses, in Pieria, after sleeping with the son
of Kronos, to be a respite from evil and a cessation of sorrow.”
—Theogony by Hesiod, translated by Barry Powell
I love this conceptualization of memory’s children as a balm for human sorrows, the idea that memory can inspire beautiful creations, even or perhaps especially from painful experiences.
I love how the ancient Homer had an original thought about some aspect of our mind and then turned that into a person with a Greek sounding name, then expressed it in poetry so profound that when turned into prose it still sounded like poetry. I think Homer had an astronomical mind and that after inventing the Greek language decided to invent Poetry to give the citizens of Greece 🇬🇷 something beautiful to read.
Ooh, I love that idea of mythological figures as personifications of aspects of the human mind. That is beautiful, and we do see it in characters like Mnemosyne (Memory) and so many more. Such towering imaginations ❤️
That quote of Hesiod, or Homer the lesser, is very beautiful, but if you hadn’t commented on it I would have had no idea what it meant 🤷🏻♂️ I still like to read things like that though, at least if nothing else I can tell it’s beautiful writing! ✨