Musings of aMuse

So,  if I'm going to call this blog A Muse's Musings, I suppose I should explain who the Muses were....

For those of you who fell asleep during your Greek Mythology unit in English, there were nine Muses... a triad of triads, if you will.  The Muses were:  Calliope (Epic Poetry), Clio (History), Erato (Lyric Poetry), Euterpe (Music and Elegiac Poetry), Melpomene (Tragedy), Polyhymnia (Religious Poetry), Terpsichore (Dance), Thalia (Comedy) and Urania (Astronomy).  Their job was to inspire Men to create and learn.

So, how do I fit in?  Um, I don't, not really.  Except I really like Greek mythology.  My first name (Melissa) has a myth.  In the pre-Internet age that I grew up in, it took me a long time to find the myth.  In the Internet Age, it took about .0005 seconds.  You can look the myth up.  Yes, I could tell you, but then you wouldn't learn how to find things out for yourself.  (Yes, I'm a mom and a teacher, can you tell?)  I'll give you a hint:  it has to do with bees.  Hmm... I guess I do fit in with the Muses.  Or least, I'm trying to get you to open up to them.

I do have a triad of Muses that are my favorites:  Calliope, Clio and Thalia.  I love epic stories:  the books that take more than one book to tell it all.  We'll talk more about those books later.  History... again, stories that take more than one book to tell it all.  Mostly, I guess I like history because I grew up on Army bases, and lots of stuff happened near Army bases.  (Think about it.  Look it up.)  Also, I lived, off and on, for 6 years in Southern Virginia.  I'm convinced that 9/10ths of the Civil War was fought around Southern Virginia. Virginia is also the site of the First Permanent English Colony (never mind St. Augustine...that was Spanish, or Roanoke Colony in North Carolina--they lost themselves.  Silly Colonists....)  As far as Thalia goes, well, I can't dance, play an instrument (or write poetry for funerals), I couldn't improve upon Solomon's poetry, hmm...let's face it, my poetry isn't very good, so Erato doesn't come to visit, and living on the East Coast means that there's too much light pollution for me to seriously study astronomy (not to mention the math involved)....so that leaves just Melpomene and Thalia...I'd rather laugh than cry (remember, there's no crying in baseball...)

So, am I a Muse?  If I inspire you to learn or create something, then maybe they'll accept me as an acolyte.  Mostly, I'm just amused.....