Mnemosyne

Q: Who was Mnemosyne?

Mnemosyne, whose name means “Memory”, was one of the Titanides, a daughter of Uranus and Gaia. She is the mother of the nine Muses by Zeus, the daughters whom Hesiod calls “a forgetting of ills and a rest from cares”.

Mnemosyne, whose name means “Memory”, was one of the Titanides, a daughter of Uranus and Gaia. She is the mother of the nine Muses by Zeus, the daughters whom Hesiod calls “a forgetting of ills and a rest from cares”. At the oracle of Trophonius in Boeotia, visitors drank the water of Memory and sat on a chair of Memory.

Parents and Siblings

Hesiod lists Mnemosyne among the children of Gaia by Uranus, with Theia, Rhea, Themis, Phoebe and Tethys, and the Titan brothers Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus and Cronus (Hesiod, Theogony 132–138). Apollodorus gives the same sons and daughters with one addition, Dione (Library 1.1.3). Hesiod does not mention her in the Titanomachy.

Family of Mnemosyne

Parents: Gaea, Uranus
Consorts: Zeus
Children: Muses, The Muses (versions differ)
Siblings: Coeus, Crius, Cronus, Hyperion, Iapetus, Oceanus, Phoebe, Rhea, Tethys, Thea, Themis

See the full family tree

Nine Nights with Zeus

Mnemosyne, who ruled the hills of Eleuther, bore the Muses in Pieria after she had lain with Zeus (Hesiod, Theogony 53–54). For nine nights he went up into her sacred bed, apart from the other immortals, and when a year had passed she bore nine daughters, of one mind, who care only for song and have carefree hearts, not far below the topmost peak of snowy Olympus (Theogony 56–62). In Hesiod's list of the wives of Zeus, Mnemosyne comes fifth, after Metis, Themis, Eurynome and Demeter, and before Leto (Theogony 915–917). Apollodorus names the nine Muses as Calliope, Clio, Melpomene, Euterpe, Erato, Terpsichore, Urania, Thalia and Polymnia (Library 1.3.1), and Hesiod gives the same names (Theogony 75–79).

Hesiod also says that the kings honoured by the Muses speak with persuasive words, and that a singer who serves the Muses can make a man forget his sorrows when he sings the glorious deeds of earlier men and the blessed gods (Theogony 80–103). That is the gift of “forgetfulness of ills” that Mnemosyne's children bring (Theogony 55). In the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, when the young Hermes sings to Apollo with his new lyre, he honours Mnemosyne first of all the gods in his song, as the mother of the Muses, because she had the son of Maia in her following (Hymn to Hermes 429–430).

Mnemosyne and Mneme

Mneme is a different name from the Titan. Pausanias records that the sons of Aloeus held the Muses to be three, named Melete (Practice), Mneme (Memory) and Aoede (Song) (Pausanias 9.29.2). In these three Mneme is one of the Muses; Mnemosyne is their mother in Hesiod.

Oracle of Trophonios

At the oracle of Trophonius at Lebadea in Boeotia, a man who wished to consult the oracle first drank the water of Forgetfulness, to forget all he had been thinking of, and then the water of Memory, which made him remember what he saw below. After his ascent the priests set him on the Chair of Memory and asked him all he had seen and learned (Pausanias 9.39.8, 9.39.13). Pausanias speaks of the water of Memory and the chair of Memory; he does not describe a goddess who presides over the oracle.