Invocation

[Apparently it's traditional to begin these things wit an invocation to the muse(s).]

I've read that tales such at this begin by invoking the Mousai, Muses, but which ones I wonder.  Again the answer comes down to me through time, the nine younger Mousai, not those of the former generation.  Which is probably for the best because I don't even know where the Elder Mousai lived.

So, Helikonian muses, dust off your instruments, stretch you limbs, and sing a few scales, because it's time for us to get this whole thing started.  Strike the ground with your feet in a syncopated beat, start the dance and begin the song, and tell me how all this came to be.

Erato, beloved, tune you kithara, or grab a guitar I suppose. Euterpe, giver of much delight, clean your aulos, or whatever flute you use these days.  Terpsikhore, delighting in dance, bring out your lyre.  Kleio, fame-maker, unfurl your scrolls. Ouranie, heavenly one, get out your charts, Polymnia, many hymns, prepare your hymns.  Melpomene, celebrate with song, tell me where things went wrong.  Thaleia, rich festivity, tell me where they went right.  Kalliope, beautiful-voice, I could use some help with the writing.

Let none of us speak softly now, for the hour is getting late.

For thousands of years you've graced the mountain tops and whispered in artists' ears, now, like those who came before and those who will come after, I call on you to help me with this project.

Fact, or fiction you spin it well but for now, tell me truly how is it that this all came to be.  Night and Day, Life and Death, Land and Sea.  Mortal and Immortal.  How did these things come into being, what was their order, how were the created?

You have long sung the stories of your father Zeus and your mother, one of the three Elder Mousai, Mnemosyne, memory, sing now of how they, and you, came to be.  Sing the story of creation, sing the story of how everything came to being.

Sing it to me, and let me write it as you sing.

Tell, through me, the story of all creation, its ages, its high and low points, its struggles and its triumphs.  Tell me how the undying gods came to reside on Olympus and why Poseidon rules over the sea.  Tell me of Hekate, and Nyx, and Gaia.  Tell me of Nereus, and Erebos, and Othos.

Tell me of the first generations and of the world we have come to know.  Tell me also of yourselves, praised by all for you storytelling talents and musical abilities.

Tell me of how this world has come to be.

If it pleases you to do so.

-

[Rewriting Greek Myth Index]