NP "Speak, Memory"

[Thomas Eckhardt]

Heikki Raudaskoski wrote:

> If my Memory speaks the right words, the title equals the first
> line of Homer's _Odyssey_.

The word used in the first line of the Odyssey is "mousa", a term that just
means "Muse", if I am not mistaken. The beginning of Homer's epic is a
typical example of what the OED describes as follows: "In classical poetry
the Muse is often invoked or referred to as if only one Muse were
recognized. Hence often in modern poetic use." Memory would have been
"Mnemosyne", which in Greek mythology is the mother of the nine Muses.
Although Nabokov does not verbatim quote the beginning of the Odyssey, the
title of his book is a traditional invocation of the Muse, and the phrasing
inevitably points to the passage in Homer (which usually is translated into
English as "Tell me, Muse").

It seems to me that quite a few contemporary poets/authors look at the
faculty of memory as the source of their inspiration, i. e.as their muse.

Thomas