Mnemosyne

In Greek mythology and ancient Greek religion, Mnemosyne (Template:IPAc-en; Template:Langx, Template:IPA) is the goddess of memory and the mother of the nine Muses by her nephew Zeus. In the Greek tradition, Mnemosyne is one of the Titans, the twelve divine children of the earth-goddess Gaia and the sky-god Uranus. The term Mnemosyne is derived from the same source as the word mnemonic, that being the Greek word mnēmē, which means "remembrance, memory".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Memory and the name Memnon, as in "Memnon of Rhodes" are etymologically related. Mnemosyne is sometimes confused with Mneme or compared with Memoria.</ref>

Family

A Titaness, Mnemosyne is the daughter of Uranus and Gaia.<ref>Hesiod, Theogony 135; Diodorus Siculus, 5.66.3; Clement of Alexandria, Recognitions 31.</ref> Mnemosyne became the mother of the nine Muses, fathered by her nephew, Zeus:

• Calliope (epic poetry)
• Clio (history)
• Euterpe (music and lyric poetry)
• Erato (love poetry)
• Melpomene (tragedy)
• Polyhymnia (hymns)
• Terpsichore (dance)
• Thalia (comedy)
• Urania (astronomy)

Hyginus in his Fabulae gives Mnemosyne a different parentage, where she was the daughter of Zeus and Clymene.<ref>Hyginus, Fabulae Preface</ref>

Mythology

File:Jupiter, vermomd als herder, verleidt Mnemosyne, godin van het geheugen Rijksmuseum SK-A-3886.jpeg

Jupiter, disguised as a shepherd, tempts Mnemosyne by Jacob de Wit (1727)

In Hesiod's Theogony, kings and poets receive their powers of authoritative speech from their possession of Mnemosyne and their special relationship with the Muses. Zeus, in the form of a mortal shepherd, slept together with Mnemosyne for nine consecutive nights, thus conceiving the nine Muses. Mnemosyne also presided over a pool<ref>Richard Janko, "Forgetfulness in the Golden Tablets of Memory", Classical Quarterly 34 (1984) 89–100; see article "Totenpass" for the reconstructed devotional which instructs the initiated soul through the landscape of Hades, including the pool of Memory.</ref> in Hades, a counterpart to the river Lethe, according to a series of 4th-century BC Greek funerary inscriptions in dactylic hexameter. Dead souls drank from Lethe so they would not remember their past lives when reincarnated. In Orphism, the initiated were taught to instead drink from the Mnemosyne, the river of memory, which would stop the transmigration of the soul.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Appearance in oral literature

Although she was categorized as one of the Titans in the Theogony, Mnemosyne did not quite fit that distinction.<ref name="Rose">Template:Cite book</ref> Titans were hardly worshiped in Ancient Greece, and were thought of as so archaic as to belong to the ancient past.<ref name="Rose" /> They resembled historical figures more than anything else. Mnemosyne, on the other hand, traditionally appeared in the first few lines of many oral epic poemsTemplate:Hsp<ref name="Notopoulos">Template:Cite journal</ref>—she appears in both the Iliad and the Odyssey, among others—as the speaker called upon her aid in accurately remembering and performing the poem they were about to recite. Mnemosyne is thought to have been given the distinction of "Titan" because memory was so important and basic to the oral culture of the Greeks that they deemed her one of the essential building blocks of civilization in their creation myth.<ref name="Notopoulos" />

Later, once written literature overtook the oral recitation of epics, Plato made reference in his Euthydemus to the older tradition of invoking Mnemosyne. The character Socrates prepares to recount a story and says "ὥστ᾽ ἔγωγε, καθάπερ οἱ (275d) ποιηταί, δέομαι ἀρχόμενος τῆς διηγήσεως Μούσας τε καὶ Μνημοσύνην ἐπικαλεῖσθαι." which translates to "Consequently, like the poets, I must needs begin my narrative with an invocation of the Muses and Memory" (emphasis added).Template:Sfn Aristophanes also harked back to the tradition in his play Lysistrata when a drunken Spartan ambassador invokes her name while prancing around pretending to be a bard from times of yore.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Cult

File:Mnemosyne (color) Rossetti.jpg

Mnemosyne (also known as Lamp of Memory or Ricordanza) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (c. 1876 to 1881).

Template:Ancient Greek religion While not one of the most popular divinities, Mnemosyne was the subject of some minor worship in Ancient Greece. Statues of her are mentioned in the sanctuaries of other gods, and she was often depicted alongside her daughters the Muses. She was also worshipped in Lebadeia in Boeotia, at Mount Helicon in Boeotia, and in the cult of Asclepius.

There was a statue of Mnemosyne in the shrine of Dionysos at Athens, alongside the statues of the Muses, Zeus and Apollo,<ref>Pausanias, 1.2.5 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.)</ref> as well as a statue with her daughters the Muses in the Temple of Athena Alea.<ref>Pausanias, 8.46.3</ref> Pausanias described the worship of Mnemosyne in Lebadeia in Boeotia, where she played an important part in the oracular sanctuary of Trophonios: Template:Blockquote Mnemosyne was also sometime regarded as being not the mother of the Muses but as one of them, and as such she was worshiped in the sanctuary of the Muses at Mount Helicon in Boeotia: Template:Blockquote

Cult of Asclepius

Mnemosyne was one of the deities worshiped in the cult of Asclepius that formed in Ancient Greece around the 5th century BC.<ref name="Ahearne-Kroll">Template:Cite journal</ref> Asclepius, a Greek hero and god of medicine, was said to have been able to cure maladies, and the cult incorporated a multitude of other Greek heroes and gods in its process of healing.<ref name="Ahearne-Kroll" /> The exact order of the offerings and prayers varied by location,<ref name="von Ehrenheim">Template:Cite book</ref> and the supplicant often made an offering to Mnemosyne.<ref name="Ahearne-Kroll" /> After making an offering to Asclepius himself, in some locations, one last prayer was said to Mnemosyne as the supplicant moved to the holiest portion of the Asclepeion to incubate.<ref name="Ahearne-Kroll" /> The hope was that a prayer to Mnemosyne would help the supplicant remember any visions had while sleeping there.<ref name="von Ehrenheim" />

See also

• Titans in popular culture: Mnemosyne
• Meme
• Meng Po
• Moneta
• Lethe

Sources

• Aeschylus, Persians. Seven against Thebes. Suppliants. Prometheus Bound. Edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein. Loeb Classical Library No. 145. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2009. Template:ISBN. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Anonymous, The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Caldwell, Richard, Hesiod's Theogony, Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987). Template:ISBN.
• Clement of Alexandria, Recognitions from Ante-Nicene Library Volume 8, translated by Smith, Rev. Thomas. T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh. 1867. Online version at theio.com
• Diodorus Siculus, Diodorus Siculus: The Library of History. Translated by Charles Henry Oldfather. Twelve volumes. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.Online version at the Lacus Curtius: Into the Roman World.
• Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Ovid, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859–1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
• Template:Cite book

Further reading

• Template:Cite book

External links

• Images of Mnemosyne at The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database
• MNEMOSYNE from The Theoi Project
• MNEMOSYNE from Greek Mythology Link