Gods, Muses, Poetry and Divine Inspiration
"This magnet attracts iron rings, and not only that, but puts the same power into the iron rings, so that they can do the same as the stone does; they attract other rings, so that sometimes there is a whole long string of these rings hanging together, and all depend for their power on that one stone. So the Muse not only inspires people herself, but through these inspired ones others are inspired and dangle in a string."
"For the poet is an airy thing, a winged and holy thing; and he cannot make poetry unless he becomes inspired and goes out of his senses and no mind is left in him; so long as he keeps possession of this, no man is able to make poetry ... therefore, the only poetry that each one can make is what the Muse has pushed him to make, one ecstatic odes, one hymns of praise, one songs for dance or pantomime, one epic, one satiric iambic, in every other kind each one of them is a failure. For not by art do they speak these things, but by divine power..."
"Here most of all do I think God has shown us, beyond all dispute, that these beautiful poems are not human, not made by man, but divine and made by God; and the poets are nothing but the gods' interpreters, possessed each by whatever god it may be. Just to prove this, God purposely sang the most beautiful of songs through the meanest of poets. Don't you think I speak the truth...?"
--Great Dialogues of Plato, excerpts taken from "Ion"--
Translated by W. H. D. Rouse
Thank you to everyone who inspires me beyond my natural capabilities. You mean more than even words can say.
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