Editing Mnemosyne (section)

=== 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">{{cite book|last1=Rose|first1=H.J.|title=A Handbook of Greek Mythology : including its extension to Rome|date=1991|publisher=Taylor and Francis, Inc.|location=London|isbn=9780415046015|edition=6th}}</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 poem]]s{{hsp}}<ref name="Notopoulos">{{cite journal|last1=Notopoulos|first1=James A.|title=Mnemosyne in Oral Literature|journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association|date=1938|volume=69|pages=466|doi=10.2307/283194|jstor=283194}}</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 tradition|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 [[literature|written literature]] overtook the oral recitation of epics, [[Plato]] made reference in his ''[[euthydemus (dialogue)|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 [[Muse]]s and '''Memory'''" (emphasis added).{{sfn |Plato |1924 |p=[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/iau.31858002195018?urlappend=%3Bseq=417%3Bownerid=13510798903868868-481 393]}} [[Aristophanes]] also harked back to the tradition in his play ''[[Lysistrata]]'' when a [[alcohol intoxication|drunken]] [[Sparta]]n [[ambassador]] invokes her name while prancing around pretending to be a bard from times of yore.<ref>{{cite web|title=Aristophanes, Lysistrata, line 1247|url= https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0242%3Acard%3D1247 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>