About This Site
This website originally began in 1997 as "Clio - my musings" on my dial-up space at mindspring.com.
Clio, the muse of history, provides perspective in all that I seek and she grants me an unambiguous understanding of an often seemingly contradictory and chaotic life.
When the Greeks speculated about the fundamental nature of art, they initially thought the matter was fairly simple. The goddess Mnemosyne (memory) bore a daughter of the great god Zeus.
The child was called Calliope and when she was grown, she gave to human beings the gift of art, a benefaction that was particularly fitting from one who joined the genius of past experience, as represented by memory, with the awesome and immediate power over the present moment that was Zeus'.
But this mythical account of origin of art soon seemed inadequate. How could a single goddess foster such diverse activities as comedy and tragedy, music and dance, sacred poetry and the lyrics of love?
By the eighth century B.C., Hesiod was describing Calliope's enlarged family. Now she was the foremost member of a group of nine sisters, the Muses, each associated with a specific art. Clio is the muse of history and so provides perspective in all that we seek.
Mythology's chief value lies in its ability to give humans an unambiguous understanding of their seemingly contradictory and chaotic lives.
In my search for understanding and order, I court my Muses daily, knowing that they posses the unique ability to inspire in me the sensuous, symbolic and practical arts of life.