Editing Mnemosyne (section)

== Cult ==
[[File:Mnemosyne (color) Rossetti.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''[[Mnemosyne (Rossetti)|Mnemosyne]]'' (also known as ''Lamp of Memory'' or ''Ricordanza'') by [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] (c. 1876 to 1881).]]
{{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 [[Livadeia|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 (geographer)|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 (geographer)|Pausanias]] described the worship of Mnemosyne in Lebadeia in Boeotia, where she played an important part in the oracular sanctuary of [[Trophonios]]: 
{{blockquote|[Part of the rituals at the oracle of Trophonios (Trophonius) at Lebadeia, Boiotia (Boeotia):] He [the supplicant] is taken by the priests, not at once to the oracle, but to fountains of water very near to each other. Here he must drink water called the water of Lethe (Forgetfulness), that he may forget all that he has been thinking of hitherto, and afterwards he drinks of another water, the water of Mnemosyne (Memory), which causes him to remember what he sees after his descent ... After his ascent from [the oracle of] Trophonios the inquirer is again taken in hand by the priests, who set him upon a chair called the chair of Mnemosyne (Memory), which stands not far from the shrine, and they ask of him, when seated there, all he has seen or learned. After gaining this information they then entrust him to his relatives. These lift him, paralysed with terror and unconscious both of himself and of his surroundings, and carry him to the building where he lodged before with Tykhe (Tyche, Fortune) and the Daimon Agathon (Good Spirit). Afterwards, however, he will recover all his faculties, and the power to laugh will return to him.<ref>Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 39. 3</ref>}}
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: 
{{blockquote|The first to sacrifice on Helikon (Helicon) to the Mousai (Muses) and to call the mountain sacred to the Mousai were, they say, Ephialtes and Otos (Otus), who also founded Askra ... The sons of Aloeus held that the Mousai were three in number, and gave them the names Melete (Practice), Mneme (Memory), and Aoide (Aeode, Song). But they say that afterwards Pieros (Pierus), a Makedonian (Macedonian) ... came to Thespiae [in Boiotia] and established nine Mousai, changing their names to the present ones ... Mimnermos [epic poet C7th B.C.] ... says in the preface that the elder Mousai (Muses) are the daughters of Ouranos (Uranus), and that there are other and younger Mousai, children of Zeus.<ref>Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 29. 1</ref>}}

=== Cult of Asclepius ===
Mnemosyne was one of the [[deities]] worshiped in the [[greek hero cult|cult]] of [[Asclepius]] that formed in [[Ancient Greece]] around the 5th century BC.<ref name="Ahearne-Kroll">{{cite journal|last1=Ahearne-Kroll|first1=Stephen P.|title=Mnemosyne at the Asklepieia|journal=Classical Philology|date=April 2014|volume=109|issue=2|pages=99–118|doi=10.1086/675272|s2cid=162319084}}</ref> [[Asclepius]], a [[Hero#Antiquity|Greek hero]] and [[List of Greek deities|god]] of [[ancient greek medicine|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 [[sacrifice|offerings]] and [[prayer]]s varied by location,<ref name="von Ehrenheim">{{cite book|last1=von Ehrenheim|first1=Hedvig|title=Greek incubation rituals in Classical and Hellenistic times|date=2011|publisher=Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University|location=Stockholm|isbn=978-91-7447-335-3}}</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 [[incubation (ritual)|incubate]].<ref name="Ahearne-Kroll" /> The hope was that a prayer to Mnemosyne would help the supplicant remember any [[vision (spirituality)|visions]] had while [[sleep]]ing there.<ref name="von Ehrenheim" />