Zeus was the Bill Clinton of mythology

Calliope: the muse of epic poetry
Clio: the muse of history
Erato: the muse of love or erotic poetry
Euterpe: the muse of music
Melponene: the muse of tragedy
Polyhymnia: the muse of hyms
Terpsichore: the muse of dance
Thalia: the muse of comedy
Urania: the muse of astronomy

Zeus and Mnemosyne slept together for nine consecutive nights, resulting in nine muses. Mnemosyne is the goddess of memory, and while she slept with Zeus, she also presided over a pool in the underworld, part of the Lethe River (the Lethe River was known for being something of an eraser; when one drank from it, they forgot everything in their past life, countering Mnemosyne's powers). When Mnemosyne was presiding over the pool in underworld, Demeter's daughter, Persephone, was in the underworld for a third of the year with her husband, Hades (king of the underworld), and returned above for part of the year, and her homecoming was called Eleusinia. This is so cool to me because the myth of Demeter and Persephone is part of Chi Omega's history and learning about it makes me feel so much more connected to mythology and to my house. I had no idea all of the twists that the myth had and it's really cool learning about it. 

"And just sometimes, but very rarely, those ties twist and turn and weave around us, until one loose end becomes knotted to another. Then, very softly, they encompass us, they form a circle, which is the crown, perfection." (Calusso, 285). 

First Impression

There are three things in my mythologies class:

• you
• me
• myth

Reading the first few pages of Cadmus and Harmony was a shock, because it felt like there were more than three things. It felt like Europa was flying above the sea right in front of me, and Zeus looked down on her, probably remembering similar sights he saw with Io, his love. It felt like Eros was falling in love with Europa in the same way my friends have fallen in love with each other- it felt like I watched Io, Hephaestus, Lloye, and Europe become a family lineage before my eyes. If a myth is a lie, this myth is the best lie I've ever heard, and I'm only a few pages in. Love, betrayal, jealousy, confusion, questioning, all pertinent parts of an intricate plot that ends in Europa's devastatingly beautiful confession: "...myth is the precedent behind every action, it's invisible, ever-present silver lining... need not fear the uncertain life opening up..."
But once again, this myth is a lie. This tale is told by re-telling the Greek mythologies, by looking at the Greek relations between these gods and goddesses and all the creatures that are able to appear in the reader's mind. The beautiful thing about this story is just that; it's a story. It's a story that I can get invested in and fall in love with and hate and cry to and hold onto, but at the end of the day it's just a fabrication of a life that was never really there.