by David D. Horowitz.
Descriptions of ancient Greek mythology often feature nine muses, each for a different form of composition or field of endeavor. Malpomene, for example, is the muse of tragedy; Thalia is the muse of comedy; Erato is the muse of lyric poetry; and six other muses seed imagination’s fields. Featuring many muses, rather than simply one, rightly reflects the complexity of human inspiration. Comedy, tragedy, lyric poetry, epic poetry, history, music, and scientific speculation need not emerge from the same source, and to distinguish different muses for each discipline feels compelling and accurate.
Yet, Greek mythology about inspiration could stand at least one addition. How about introducing a muse for tragicomedy? So many great compositions, musical as well as literary, defy strict labeling and categorization. Shakespeare’s histories and tragedies, for instance, have their share of comic relief: buffoonery, foolish pomposity, deflating wit, and punning. Think of Polonius or the gravediggers in Hamlet or the cobbler in the opening scene of Julius Caesar or the “fool” in King Lear. Comedy and tragedy are distinct but linked, interwoven in both great art and life. Indeed, many times I’ve laughed at a moment of sorrow—to relieve stress or despair or when I felt overcome with pleasure at the thought of a recently deceased friend’s marvelous wit. I was saddened by loss but helpless with laughter when recalling their jokes and pranks that “set the table on a roar”!
I welcome, then, a tenth muse, one who inspires bittersweet lyrics and blends poignancy and wit, laughter and weeping, tragedy and comedy. Just as a piano having eighty-eight keys increases its capacity to express subtlety, so having nine—or ten—muses helps highlight distinct sources of artistic and intellectual inspiration. And how could human life, in all its glorious, brutal complexity, not stir us to awareness of deeper realities than those inferred by mere labels such as “the muse,” “comedy,” and “tragedy.”
Complex blending, of course, happens not only in art but in nature. Note how rain and brightness blend during a sun shower—and often create a double rainbow! And then: a human being, perhaps inspired by a muse, might compose a poem or song about the double rainbow. The muses—midwives of human creativity—seem to still practice their magical mischief and profound guidance. Don’t scare them away by forcing them to adhere to the boundaries of convention.