Hesiod on poets, and, for that matter, kings
“The Dance of the Muses at Mount Helicon“ (1807)
________
though Zeus may preside over kings,
none other than Apollo and the Muses
preside over poets, according to
Hesiod
Kalliope, foremost of the nine Muses,
who tends specifically to kings, and
to those being born of kings, in the
company of her sisters, Kleo and
Euterpe, Thaleia and Melpomene,
Terpsichore and Erato and Polymnia
and Ourania, will pour a dew sweeter
than honey upon such a one’s tongue,
and his words become soothing,
palliative, placating
“far shooting Apollo“, however,
presides at the inspiration of poets,
lending the lyrical notes from his
representative lyre, not to mention
his lyrics, derivative both terms of
that etymological “lyre”, incidentally,
so far has Apollo “shot”, dare I say,
his spirit into our collective
unconscious
“From the Muses and far-shooting Apollo
are singers and guitar-players across the earth,
but kings are from Zeus. Blessed is he whom the Muses
love. From his mouth the streams flow sweeter than honey.
If anyone holds sorrow in his spirit from fresh grief and
is dried out in his heart from grieving, the singer,
servant of the Muses, hymns the deeds of men of the past
and the blessed gods who hold Olympus, and
right away he forgets his troubles and does not remember
a single care. Quickly do the gifts of the goddess divert him.”
Theogony (lines 94 – 103)
Hesiod
therefore poets
Richard
psst: a friend has just passed on,
it is a time for poets
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