 Calliope Where Are You?
I was watching the tiny line blink on my blank screen when I realized what I needed at that exact moment. Inspiration. I was astonished to find that I didn't know what it was, where I needed to look for it, or whether such a thing even existed in the first place. All I knew was that if it really did exist, it was nowhere close to where I was.
We hear great stories about great people and how they found inspiration -- or rather how it found them. We love hearing about their muses, and we wonder what makes them so special. We wonder why only some are lucky enough to converge with their source of inspiration. The thing is, most of the time we don't know what we are talking about. We don't really know what it is. We keep wondering what this “inspiration” is that so many people are searching for but only a few can find.
Ancient Greece and Rome had an answer to this question. (I know, what a surprise!) Back then people did not believe that creativity came from humans -- they believed it was a spirit that came to human beings from some distant mysterious place. They were most commonly referred as “daemons.”
Socrates himself believed that he had a daemon that whispered into his ear from time to time. Too bad the daemon never whispered, “Hey Socrates you better keep an eye on that Plato.”
Of course there were the Muses back then, too. I don't know if they looked like Nicole Kidman, but they were the nine goddesses in Greek mythology who controlled and represented nine different types of art. These Muses were: Clio (history), Thalia (comedy), Euterpe (lyrical poetry), Melpomene (tragedy), Terpsichore (dance and song), Erato (love song), Polymnia (sublime hymn), Urania (astronomy) and Calliope (epic poetry). They were the nine daughters of Zeus.
The Romans had the same kind of idea for inspiration, but they called it a “genius,” though not in the Einstein way that we understand it. Rather, “genius” was like a spiritual version of how the Greeks conceptualized inspiration. The Romans believed that a “genius” lived within the walls of an artist's studio and helped them with their work. At those times artists didn't get all the credit for their spectacular work as there was a divine creature there to help them and, likewise, if they happened to create something worth flushing down the toilet, it was not entirely their fault. I know, what a relief. Wish we could say the same thing about our papers, “Sir, seriously, you gave me a D, but it was not entirely my fault. The spirit told me about that part you did not like.”
After the renaissance things changed and people started to believe that inspiration comes from within, but they couldn't exactly say why. I'm guessing that they believed a person was born with it. But of course even today there are people who believe that it's something divine. For instance, in certain parts of North Africa, inspiration is thought to be the reflection of God himself.
So I guess when it comes down to it, there is no single answer. As far as I know, inspiration can come in many different forms; Iit can be a painting, a song, a person, a certain liquid within a bottle or chewing gum stuck under you shoe. It could be just about anything. You know what it is the moment you see it. You realize, “Oh, that was what I was looking for.”
I also know that people don't really like to share what their source of inspiration is. They become excessively possessive about it. I really don't know why. It's not like anyone else can use it. Right?
But if you were to ask me what inspiration is, I'd say it's that gunshot that starts the race, it's the cork of a champagne bottle or the password that logs into your account. It's just something that opens the lid and lets what's already inside out. At least that’s what I want it to be. Believe me, I don't need another imaginary friend.
By Eda Erdem (TRIN/IV)
a_erdem@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
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