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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

So...Who's Mnemosyne??

In the complicated theology (or mythology, if you prefer) of ancient Greece, Mnemosyne was the Titan goddess with whom Zeus the Cloud-gatherer slept for nine nights in a row.  A year later, the greatly pregnant Mnemosyne gave birth to the nine Muses.  Thus, one of Mnemosyne’s daughters was Clio, the Muse of History who inspires all those who look back upon the past and write about it.

Aside from her role as the “mother of the muses”, Mnemosyne was also charged with the responsibility of watching over the sacred Pool of Memory, which occupies a prime piece of real estate in Hades.   Those who drank deeply from her pool were able to remember the people and events of their past, unlike those who drank from the river Lethe, where all things were forgotten.  She was therefore the goddess of Memory.