Who are the 21st century Muses?

January 12, 2006 4:02 AM

Who are the 21st century Muses?

Originally there were three muses, then nine (3x3) traditional Muses. Considering the proliferation of new arts in the last few thousand years, why not 3x3x3 (that is, 3^3), or 27?

I recently bumped into Caissa, the Muse of Chess and Fairy Chess (she was discovered in 1763). She told me that via the usual process of delegation, She is now also the Muse of Gaming and Game Design in general. Huzzah!

What other Muses are there? Plato called Sappho the "Tenth Muse", but this seems a bit dubious to me as she was mortal, and about half the original Nine oversee different kinds of poetry already. Alice Weaver Flaherty, who wrote The Midnight Disease, a study of manic states, inspiration, and writer's block, says that people sometimes nominate new Muses for things like web pages and talk shows, but I haven't seen any mentioned yet. Don't point me toward this book; it looks like self-serving newage commercial tripe to me. ("Lull [the Muse of] permission to let go of the process and take a break"? Please. The real Muse is more likely to flay the flesh from your broken back as you lie mad in the gutter.)

I'm up for having fun with the new Muses, but ha-ha-only-serious or better, please. If you can document the new Muse from a third party's writing, even better. Also, did your new Muse pay you a personal visit?

p.s. Who is the Muse of inventing/discovering new Muses?

posted by rwhe to media & arts (14 comments total)

The muse-of-new-muses' job would probably be covered by Autophagia, the muse of self-referentiality (and blogging.)
posted by misteraitch at 5:29 AM on January 12, 2006

Sharon Stone
posted by mkultra at 7:19 AM on January 12, 2006

Iroll, the muse of sarcasm.
posted by The White Hat at 7:32 AM on January 12, 2006

The Zork Chronicles by George Alec Effinger has Phretys the Muse of Modern Science Fiction, and her sister Threnia the Muse of Modern Fantasy Novels.
posted by Rubber Soul at 8:42 AM on January 12, 2006

Kristin Hersh of the Throwing Muses?
posted by mikel at 8:52 AM on January 12, 2006

Salma Hayek? Or Friedrich Hayek, the muse of capitalism? (OK, that was a stretch)

Somewhat outside of the intended idea, there's also the idea that the muses were replaced by the Holy Spirit (see: Milton).
posted by dagnyscott at 9:08 AM on January 12, 2006

Who's the muse of Chatfilter?
posted by klangklangston at 11:45 AM on January 12, 2006

Thanks, Rubber Soul. This is just what I was looking for. I note that Recursive Science Fiction -- Almost says, "It is a nice touch [in the Zork Chronicles] to have two of the many new muses be Phretys the Muse of Modern Science Fiction and her sister Threnia the Muse of Modern Fantasy Novels", so it seems that lots of other new muses are mentioned too. I'll have to find a copy.

Is there any other fiction that mentions new muses? Perhaps time to hit the Encyclopedias of Fantasy and SF.

The other posters seem to have the "ha ha" part down, but are having trouble grasping the "only serious". Not very helpful.
posted by rwhe at 2:40 PM on January 12, 2006

Well, according to the Encyclopedia of Fantasy, the Discworld has eight muses, led by Cantaloupe (as opposed to Calliope). I suppose this falls into the pure "ha ha" part of the spectrum, though.
posted by rwhe at 4:40 PM on January 12, 2006

While Zork Chronicles is a fun book, you don't need to bother tracking down a copy; Phretys and Threnia are the only new muses actually named in the text. There's just a line or two like "In these modern times there are lots of new muses out there; for example, I'm Threnia, and there's my sister, Phretys..." And Effinger, sadly, can no longer benefit from your patronage anyway... :(
posted by Rubber Soul at 11:16 PM on January 12, 2006

Too late, Rubber Soul! I already bought a copy. You're right; I don't see any other muses in the text. Glorian (the protagonist) estimates that there have been around 2200 new muses since the first nine "ethereal beauties" arrived on the scene.

The book looks pretty funny and metafictional, though, especially if you played the Zork games. I hoist a glass to Effinger's memory.

Can anyone translate "Phretys" and "Threnia"?
posted by rwhe at 12:29 AM on January 13, 2006

"Threnia" reminded me of "threnody", the etymology of which is given by m-w.com as "Etymology: Greek thrEnOidia, from thrEnos dirge + aeidein to sing".

A quick google turns up the fact that "phret(o)-" is Greek for a well, reservoir or tank.

Make of those factlets what you will, I guess.
posted by sennoma at 10:47 PM on January 13, 2006

Multajn dankojn, sennoma!
posted by rwhe at 2:38 PM on January 14, 2006

Ne dankinde, rwhe. (I had to look that up. If people are going to start speaking to me in E-o because of my nick, I should brush up.)
posted by sennoma at 6:23 PM on January 14, 2006