Comments on: Who are the 21st century Muses?

Question: Who are the 21st century Muses?

rwhe — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 04:02:44 -0800

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?

By: misteraitch

misteraitch — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 05:29:20 -0800

The muse-of-new-muses' job would probably be covered by Autophagia, the muse of self-referentiality (and blogging.)

By: mkultra

mkultra — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 07:19:49 -0800

Sharon Stone

By: The White Hat

The White Hat — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 07:32:55 -0800

Iroll, the muse of sarcasm.

By: Rubber Soul

Rubber Soul — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 08:42:44 -0800

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.

By: mikel

mikel — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 08:52:27 -0800

Kristin Hersh of the Throwing Muses?

By: dagnyscott

dagnyscott — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 09:08:33 -0800

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).

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 11:45:32 -0800

Who's the muse of Chatfilter?

By: rwhe

rwhe — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 14:40:06 -0800

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.

By: rwhe

rwhe — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 16:40:38 -0800

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.

By: Rubber Soul

Rubber Soul — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 23:16:06 -0800

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... :(

By: rwhe

rwhe — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 00:29:14 -0800

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"?

By: sennoma

sennoma — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 22:47:34 -0800

"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.

By: rwhe

rwhe — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 14:38:14 -0800

Multajn dankojn, sennoma!

By: sennoma

sennoma — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 18:23:45 -0800

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.)