The muses | Greek Mythology | Tales of Muses

"Dead you shall lie, forever, a name that none recall;

For never you gathered roses upon the Muses' tree.

Dim as you were in living, there too in Hades' hall

You shall drift where only phantoms faint and forgotten flee." 

(Sappho of Mytilene, born c. 610 BC; Ancient greek Poet)

Civilizations emerge, rise, reach to climax, and then began to decline and in the end vanish. . .then with the passage of time all the signs of their existence began to fade away, and even the stories of their existence are forgotten from the human mind. But only Muses keep in their memory the stories of the people of the forgotten past. And then only these Muses tell the forgotten stories to the humans, and indirectly transfer the forgotten knowledge in form of myths.  All things originate in the myths, which are the cradle and preview both of those things that are, and of those that should be. But the myths, a Sacred All-embracing True Tale which depends on nothing except language, are told to men by the MUSES.

 Inspiration is a mystical, intangible thing that grasps the artist, the writer, the inventor, and even the scientist. And the muses were deemed to be the source of that inspiration.

Muses are a group of sister goddesses of obscure but ancient origin and are considered the source of the knowledge embodied in poetry, lyric songs, and myths. They are also considered goddesses, who remember all the things that had come to pass.

Hesiod says that the Muses were daughters of the Titaness Mnemosyne, the goddess of Memory.

The Muses spent much of their time on Olympus cheerfully singing and dancing. Sometimes they also came down to earth. Mount Helicon is a mountain in Greece, celebrated in Greek mythology. It is said that two springs sacred to the Muses were located there. One of its springs was created when Pegasus struck his hoof against the ground, causing a spring to emerge. It was at one of its springs where Narcissus fell in love with his own magnificence, but there abound stories of poets, artists, and musicians who all found their creative inspiration at Helicon. It was the place  where Hesiod had been pasturing sheep and met with Muses and was inspired by them to write “The Theogony.”

Hesiod placed a reference to the Muses on the Helicon at the very beginning of his Theogony:

From the Heliconian Muses let us begin to sing,

Who hold the great and holy mount of Helicon,

And dance on soft feet about the deep-blue spring

 and, When they have washed their tender bodies in Permessus

Or in the Horse's Spring or Olmeius,

Make their fair, lovely dances upon the highest Helicon

And move with vigorous feet.

The Muses whisper in the ears of those that invoke them. Their gifts inspire musicians and writers to reach ever greater artistic and intellectual heights. These women inspired all manner of discoveries and creations, from science to art. They discovered letters and the combination of these we call poetry.

Their gifts also help mankind to forget their troubles.  Hesiod states that the Muses were created as an aid to forgetfulness and relief from troubles, perhaps as a balance to their mother, who personified memory.

In “The Theogony,” Hesiod tells us that there were nine Muses – and most authors, especially since Roman times, abide by his account. 

The extraordinary tales told by the Muses are neither to be believed nor disbelieved. Belief belongs to religion, magic, and superstition, and Disbelief belongs to exhaustion, despair, and emptiness. But the myths stand, by the power of Memory and the MUSES, on the golden thread that separates and blends both.

The truth of the MUSES' tales is not a truth of a factual kind. This is why they say in the words of the poet: