Dec 05 2008
If Erato be the Muse of Love….
Come, Erato. Lovely muse,
stand by me,
as I craft this tale.
For music
is not a sound of the mouth–
nor poetry a scratch of the pen.
Any voice of the heart,
is sheltered by the harp*.
Clear-voiced Erato
lend me your lucidity
so that my words may be
wreaths of roses**,
moist with dew.
Erato, in that I sing of love,
I stand by you.
By tradition there are nine muses; goddesses of the art (well, originally there were just three: practice, memory and voice–but we are going with the later version). At the time the preeminant arts were music, song/poetry and dance. And Erato is the muse of erotic poetry, and I am sure erotic fiction would now fall within her domain.
Blogging also, I would suggest–so long as it is in her subject area. Because in ancient times oral poetry was often focussed on the news and gossip of the day. So as I writter or erotic romance and a blog concerning sexuality I wrote the entreaty above, for myself and anyone else who might want to call on the Muse for a little assistance.
It was traditional to call upon a muse before beginning a performance and ask for her presence. Because the basic meaning of muse/mousai is mental ability and power–and this is what the muses embody.
So those of you who create or consume romance and/or erotica, let the Erato remind you: the erotic genres have a tradition that is as long as it is ‘broad’–as old as humanity and extending with equal vigor from the ‘finest’ of art to the most engaging of pure entertainments.
Next time you see eroticism and romance conflated with gratuity, banality and, think of Erato, a goddess of love and lust. If you stand by her, she’ll stand by you.
* The harp is Erato’s emblem–she is also associated with the parrot and the crow.
** “[Erato] with both hands plaits wreathes of roses”– Propertius, Elegies 3.3
(p.s. remember to be nice to grasshoppers. Because fable, as described by Plato, says that when they die they carry news of lovers to Erato–and let her know that by loving you honor her. And if a friendly muse helps with writing, I am sure a grasshopper-squishing writer is in for some trouble ;) )
