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Can anyone tell me what they think a muse is?

Following on from the wonderful Leonard Cohen's death they mentioned he had a muse and that when she died he said he thought he would follow her soon.. SO what is a muse? I could look it up..but I suspect it's not entirely definable?

Posted - November 11, 2016

Responses


  • It is .. someone will add more direct detail but I believe the concept comes from the Greeks .. there were muses in various arts, semi divine I think... They were the inspiration for those arts or the patrons maybe ... Today my concept of a muse is some one who inspired you in an art ... Hope this helps
      November 11, 2016 3:02 PM MST
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  • Ok that's cool.. i erm must have a dirty mind.. i assumed it must be sexual as well but from this perhaps it doesn't have to be
      November 11, 2016 3:06 PM MST
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  • Could be sexual ... Someone who inspires you :)
      November 11, 2016 3:16 PM MST
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  • 2515
    Someone or a spirit that inspires you. I have a muse that inspires me to write poetry. She talks to me and encourages me to write. She also encourages to write. I know it's weird. when I found my spirit to write, I couldn't be without  paper and pen. I had a notebook by my bed in case I wanted to write, because I had to write if I was inspired.  I wrote on napkins when I was out of paper. That's a muse. 
      November 11, 2016 3:09 PM MST
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  • So the muse can be real or spirit or just someone we see, like an actress or author who inspires us?
      November 11, 2016 3:19 PM MST
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  • 314
    Someone/something/somewhere that inspires your creativity.
      November 11, 2016 3:18 PM MST
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  • Wisegeek.org suggests much the same as everyone else and I go along with this description too....

    "Many artists, writers, poets and musicians have said that their creative work has been inspired by an individual whom they refer to as their muse. A muse is someone who has such an influence on another that he or she becomes the focus and inspiration for that person's creative work. The term has historically been used by men to describe the women that they have been in love with and made the subject of their work".
      November 11, 2016 3:37 PM MST
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  • One mouse. Two muse.
      November 11, 2016 4:12 PM MST
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  • "A," "the," or "my muse" was frequently mentioned by classical poets in their poetry, usually male poets speaking of a female spirit or woman (often an unattainable object of desire), but any artists can use the term referring to a real or imagined source of inspiration.

    In Ancient Greek mythology the nine muses were the daughters of the god Zeus and the mortal Μnemosyne. She gave her babies to the god Apollo and he taught each one a different art, making her the muse for that art form.
    Their names were:
    Cllio, history and guitar
    Euterpe, flute, several musical instruments, teaching courses, and dialectical argument
    Thalia, comedy, geometry, architectural science, agriculture, and protector of symposiums
    Melpomeni, tragedy and rhetoric
    Terpsichore, dance, harp and education
    Erato, love, love poetry and marriages
    Polymnia, lyre, divine hymns and mimic art; geometry and grammar.
    Ourania, astronomy, protector of stars and celestial objects
    Calliope, justice and serenity, heroic poetry and rhetoric, companion of rulers

    In classical European poetry, the poet often starts by invoking the muse most pertinent to the aim of his poem. Or sometimes the whole poem is an ode to her influence.

    Germaine Greer, in "Slip-Shod Sybils," has written several essays on the history and effect of the idea of female muses as they affect women poets - not favourably. The history is a litany of failure until the beginning of the 20th century, when Sylvia Plath throws off the female tradition of writing in conformity patriarchal culture and writes directly from the heart.

    muse
    1
    mjuːz/
    noun
    noun: Muse; plural noun: Muses; noun: muse; plural noun: muses
    1. 1.
      (in Greek and Roman mythology) each of nine goddesses, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who preside over the arts and sciences.
      synonyms: inspiration, creative influence, stimulus,stimulation;
      "the poet's muse"
    2. 2.
      a woman, or a force personified as a woman, who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist.
      "Yeats' muse, Maud Gonne"
      synonyms: inspiration, creative influence, stimulus,stimulation;
      "the poet's muse"
    Origin
    late Middle English: from Old French, or from Latin musa, from Greek mousa .
    muse2
    mjuːz/
    verb
    verb: muse; 3rd person present: muses; past tense: mused; past participle: mused; gerund or present participle: musing
    1. 1.
      be absorbed in thought.
      "he was musing on the problems he faced"
      synonyms: ponder, consider, think over/about, mull over, reflect on, contemplate, deliberate, turn over in one's mind, chew over, weigh up, meditate on, ruminate over/on, brood on, give some thought to, cogitate on, evaluate, examine, study, review; More
      think, debate with oneself, be lost in contemplation/thought, be in a brown study, daydream, be in a reverie;
      archaicpore on;
      rarecerebrate
      "I mused on Toby's story as I walked home"
      • say to oneself in a thoughtful manner.
        "‘I think I've seen him somewhere before,’ mused Rachel"
      • gaze thoughtfully at.
        "the sergeant stood, his eyes musing on the pretty police constable"
    noun
    noun: muse; plural noun: muses
    1. 1.
      an instance or period of reflection.
    Origin
    Middle English: from Old French muser ‘meditate, waste time’, perhaps from medieval Latin musum ‘muzzle’.
    Translate muse to
     
    Use over time for: muse
      November 11, 2016 4:23 PM MST
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  • Sing, Oh muse, of the rage of Achilles,Son of Peleus,  that brought countless ills upon the Acheans.

      November 11, 2016 6:31 PM MST
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  • 5835
    In Greek mythology the muses were goddesses who inspired literature, philosophy, and arts. (Some historians say "science" but the ancients did not have science; they had philosophy. And for two thousand years, philosophy meant Aristotle.)

    The ancients had no tradition about individual thought. Everything came from the gods. Djinn, genie, genius, general, generic, gen-anything, engine, ingenious, engineer, all were assumed to be spiritually guided. Eventually people started claiming their thoughts as their own, and they were called "idiotes", which means "their own". The word morphed into "idea", but to this day a muse still has a better reputation than an idea. This post was edited by Not Sure at November 11, 2016 7:26 PM MST
      November 11, 2016 7:25 PM MST
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  • Interesting answer.
    Even though it was publically held that all inspiration came from the gods, I'm not sure that I believe that this was literally believed by all.
    For instance, Socrates developed some original thoughts and was sentenced to death by hemlock for "corrupting" youth, meaning teaching them to think independently and not necessarily in conformity with Athenian custom.
    The playwrights and comedians had a relatively free rein in creating original works.
    Plato developed new ideas about logos and consciousness.
    Democrates developed the idea of the atom, from which modern science developed.
    Studies such as astronomy and geometry were based more on observation and logic than myth - otherwise, they could not have achieved such magnificent architecture, nor navigated and conquered the seas.
      November 11, 2016 11:16 PM MST
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  • 5835
    Yes, but those people were considered philosophers. There was quite a process to go through before people began to be aware of themselves as sources of thoughts. A lot of philosophers have proposed a lot of high sounding theories about that. The subject is called "bicameral mind" and Julian Jaynes is the big name in the field. Here is a delightfully wacko essay about it: http://www.viewzone.com/state-of-mind/01.html
      November 12, 2016 4:59 PM MST
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  • 17592
    Go ahead .  It's totally definable.  
      November 12, 2016 12:22 AM MST
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