Mnemosyne (Greek Mνημοσύνη, IPA [nɪˈmɒzɪni] in RP and [nɪˈmɑsəni] in General American) (sometimes confused with Mneme or compared with Memoria) was the personification of memory in Greek mythology. This titaness was the daughter of Gaia and Uranus and the mother of the Muses by Zeus. The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the Ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. ... The ancient Greeks proposed many different ideas about the primordial gods in their mythology. ... Twelve Olympians, also known as the Dodekatheon (Greek: Δωδεκάθεον < δωδεκα, dodeka, twelve + θεον, theon, of the gods), in Greek religion, were the principal gods of the Greek pantheon, residing atop Mount Olympus. ... The ancient Greeks had a very small number of see gods. ... For other uses, see Chthon (disambiguation). ... In Greek mythology, the Muses (Greek , Mousai: perhaps from the Proto-Indo-European root *men- think[1]) are a number of goddesses or spirits who embody the arts and inspire the creation process with their graces through remembered and improvised song and stage, writing, traditional music and dance. ... Asclepius (Greek also rendered Aesculapius in Latin and transliterated Asklepios) was the god of medicine and healing in ancient Greek mythology, according to which he was born a mortal but was given immortality as the constellation Ophiuchus after his death. ... This article is about the race of Titans in Greek mythology. ... Oceanus, with his wife, Tethys, ruled the seas before Poseidon. ... In Greek mythology, Tethys was a Titaness and sea goddess who was both sister and wife of Oceanus. ... This article is about Hyperion, a Titan in Greek mythology. ... In Greek mythology, Theia (also written Thea or Thia), also called Euryphaessa (wide-shining), was a Titan. ... In Greek mythology, Coeus (also Koios) was the Titan of intelligence. ... Phoebe (pronunced fee-bee) was one of the original Titans, one set of sons and daughters of Uranus and Gaia. ... Cronus is not to be confused with Chronos, the personification of time. ... Rhea (or Ria meaning she who flows) was the Titaness daughter of Uranus and of Gaia. ... In Greek mythology, Hesiod mentions Themis among the six sons and six daughters—of whom Cronos was one—of Gaia and Ouranos, that is, of Earth with Sky. ... In Greek mythology, Crius was one of the Titans, a son of Uranus and Gaia. ... In Greek mythology Iapetus, or Iapetos, was a Titan, the son of Uranus and Gaia, and father (by an Oceanid named Clymene or Asia) of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius and through Prometheus and Epimetheus and Atlas an ancestor of the human race. ... Eos, by Evelyn De Morgan (1850 - 1919), 1895 (Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC): for a Pre-Raphaelite painter, Eos was still the classical pagan equivalent of an angel Eos (dawn) was, in Greek Mythology, the Titan goddess of the dawn, who rose from her home at the edge of... For other uses, see Helios (disambiguation). ... This article is about the Greek goddess. ... For other uses, see Leto (disambiguation). ... Asteria in Greek mythology can refer to: // In Greek mythology, Asteria was the sixth Amazon killed by Heracles when he came for Hippolytes girdle. ... In Greek mythology, Atlas was one of the primordial Titans. ... In Greek mythology, Prometheus (Ancient Greek: , forethought)[1] is a Titan known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals for their use. ... In Greek mythology, Epimetheus (hindsight, literally hind-thought) was the brother of Prometheus (foresight, literally fore-thought), a pair of Titans who acted as representatives of mankind (Kerenyi 1951, p 207). ... For other uses, see Menoetius. ... The symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet can be used to show pronounciation in English. ... For other uses, see Mneme (disambiguation). ... Memoria was the term for aspects involving memory in Western classical rhetoric. ... For other uses, see Memory (disambiguation). ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the Ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. ... This article is about the race of Titans in Greek mythology. ... For other uses, see Gaia. ... For other uses, see Uranus (disambiguation). ... In Greek mythology, the Muses (Greek , Mousai: perhaps from the Proto-Indo-European root *men- think[1]) are a number of goddesses or spirits who embody the arts and inspire the creation process with their graces through remembered and improvised song and stage, writing, traditional music and dance. ... For other uses, see Zeus (disambiguation). ...

In Hesiod's Theogony, kings and poets receive their powers of authoritative speech from their possession of Mnemosyne and their special relationship with the Muses. Roman bronze bust, the so-called Pseudo-Seneca, now identified by some as possibly Hesiod Hesiod (Hesiodos, ) was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, who presumably lived around 700 BC. Hesiod and Homer, with whom Hesiod is often paired, have been considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived... Theogony (Greek: Θεογονία, theogonia = the birth of God(s)) is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins and genealogies of the gods of the ancient Greeks, composed circa 700 BC. The title of the work comes from the Greek words for god and seed. // Hesiods Theogony is a large-scale...

Zeus and Mnemosyne slept together for nine consecutive nights and thereby created the nine muses. Mnemosyne was also the name for a river in Hades, counterpart to the river Lethe, according to a series of 4th century BC Greek funerary inscriptions in dactylic hexameter. Dead souls drank from Lethe so they would not remember their past lives when reincarnated. Initiates were encouraged to drink from the river Mnemosyne when they died, instead of Lethe. These inscriptions may have been connected with a private mystery religion, or with Orphic poetry (see Zuntz, 1971). Hades, Greek god of the underworld, enthroned, with his bird-headed staff, on a red-figure Apulian vase made in the 4th century BC. For other uses, see Hades (disambiguation). ... In Classical Greek, Lethe (LEE-thee) literally means forgetfulness or concealment. The Greek word for truth is a-lethe-ia, meaning un-forgetfulness or un-concealment. In Greek mythology, Lethe is one of the several rivers of Hades. ... The 4th century BC started the first day of 400 BC and ended the last day of 301 BC. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period. ... Dactyllic hexameter (also known as heroic hexameter) is a form of meter in poetry or a rhythmic scheme. ... This article is about the theological concept. ... Mystery religions, or simply Mysteries, were belief systems of the Graeco-Roman world full admission to which was restricted to those who had gone through certain secret initiation rites. ... For other uses, see Orpheus (disambiguation). ...

Similarly, those who wished to consult the oracle of Trophonius in Boeotia were made to drink alternately from two springs called "Lethe" and "Mnemosyne". An analogous setup is described in the Myth of Er at the end of Plato's Republic. Trophonius (the Latinate spelling) or Trophonios (in the transliterated Greek spelling) was a Greek hero or daimon or god - it was never certain which one - with a rich mythological tradition and an oracular cult at Lebadaea in Boeotia. ... Boeotia or Beotia (//, (Greek Βοιωτια; see also list of traditional Greek place names) was the central area of ancient Greece. ... The Myth of Er is an analogy used in Platos Republic. ... For other uses, see Plato (disambiguation). ... Look up republic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

References

• Zuntz, Gunter. Persephone. Cambridge, 1971.

See also

• Mnemonic
• Meme