Zeus & Mnemosyne

Memory, in Greek mythology, was the province of the goddess Mnemosyne, the deity who – after a sexual liaison with Zeus – gave birth to the nine Muses:

Clio, the Muse of history;
Urania, the Muse of astronomy;
Melpomene, tragedy;
Thalia, comedy;
Terpsichore, dance;
Calliope, epic poetry;
Erato, love poetry;
Euterpe, lyric poetry;
Polyhymnia, hymns to all the gods.

From Mnemosyne comes the word mnemonics – the collective term for the science (or art) of memory. Among the earliest of these techniques were the rhythmic cadences of poetry. The blindness of Homer was not simply a literary trope[*]: the Greek poets recited from memory.

[G. de Souza, Masters of Memory, p. 14]


Museum = temple of the Muses

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[*] See >Amnesia.