Fires of Inspiration (Part Four) – Fairy pictures link and Mythological Species of Humanoids # 25 – Muses

Inspiration is a “breathing in” of ideas and motivations that move people in a new direction.

The Burning Bush symbolizes a fire of inspiration for Moses starting the Exodus. The Tongues of Fire that came with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost on the Apostles, started the Church. The apple falling on Newton's head and making stars is the fictional inspiration for his career in science.

My initial inspiration for my SylF(ae) Saga is a
combination of my love of mythology and my love and longing for the forest, when my children were young and my ability to tromp about in the forest was limited.

Inspiration can come from many sources. Most common sources include: music, art, nature, stories, science, children and travel. But just about anything can be a source of inspiration. Just remember there is nothing new under the sun, so feel free to borrow heavily from other people created works. As long as you change it enough to make it your own, most easily done by borrowing from several sources and recombining ideas, then you appear creative and original. But every body borrows from everybody else, so go ahead and copy some of other people's ideas – creatively.

I am inspired by pictures of fairies. They seem to be creatures of fire and light. Here's some links to pictures on the web I especially like Arthur Rackham's fairy pictures

Back in November when I started this blog I posted about my muses. They've found ways to creep into my story. One of my muses is a fairy that I named Elusive Giggling Fairy (EFG for short.) She still haunts me. I started my Camp Nano experience this month with a single sentence straight from my unconscious
: some insane dribble about fairies.

It is my opinion that fairies have the personalities of two year olds. So I mined my large repertoire of two year old interactions and came up with several new minor fairy characters for my SylF` Saga series. The original fairy for the series is one named Timber Hitch Knot Fairy. She inspired a poem about herself. Here's the first few lines of it that my daughter has already imitated for one of her own poems.

A little fairy leafed and green,

popped from a tree-some desk and beamed.

[I will claim the proverb happily: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I know I've flattered many this way.]

My daughter has really blossomed in her Camp Nano story this month, blowing away any household word count averages we've had. I quickly moved past jealousy to joy for he. I realized that my goal should stay low for this Nano since my current focus should be on continuing to stitch together the pieces of my first book in the SylF(ae) [spelling is still in transition] Saga so I can send it out to beta readers. I'm very excited for that, as I have several volunteers.

Mythological Species of Humanoid #25 – Muses

When you look closely at the myths of the muses, there is conflicting information with their numbers being 3 muses and 9 muses or here and several complexish stories about where they came from, how they got their names and what they accomplished. So apparently like many of the myths there are an amalgamation of stories from several cultures and time periods.

Here is the simplest, most widely accepted version [probably because it is Roman and therefore the most recent, you know, in that history-is-always-written-by-the-victors sort of way]:

Even here there is disagreement and even over who is the leader of them. [Good grief!]

Calliope (Beautiful Voice?) - epic poetry, heoric poetry - writing tablet [Homer's gal] [Orpheus's ma]

Clio (The Proclaimer?) (Originally named "History"? Changed her name to "heroic acts"?) - history, heroic poetry - scroll [or was Calliope heroic poetry?]

Euterpe (One Who Rejoices Well?) - music, lyric poetry - flute [the cheery one]

Thalia (The Flourishing or Becoming One?) - comedy, geometry?, agriculture - comedy mask, shepherd's crook [the happy one, but not the cheery one?]

Melpomene (The Chanting One?) - tragedy, rhetoric speech - tragedy mask, boots [The sad one]

Terpsichore (One Who Rejoices in Dance?) (Name means "to be amused") - dance, harp, education, choral singing - lyre and dancing [what does this have to do with education?] [Siren's ma]

Erato (The Passionate or Lovely One?) - love, love poetry, weddings, erotic poetry, parrots and crows - lyre and love's bow and arrows [what do parrots and crows have to do with love?]

Polyhymnia (Polymnia?) (Singer of Many Hymns?) - hymns, geometry?, grammar, eloquence - thoughtful with finger to mouth - [two muses of geometry? who would have imagined that?]
 
Urania (Ourania?) (The Celestial One?) - astronomy, astrology, stars - globe and pair of compasses [is this the muse of science?]

The original Muses were a part of Greek mythology. Many of the names come from Greek words. But they've been around and have acquired a bit of reputation, some of it quite confusing.

If you want to see links to my reference to my muses click on the tab above.

What are your sources of inspiration and who are your muses? How have they inspired you to be creative?