From the book
The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns
Attributed to Orpheus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordΜνημοσύνη is the named goddess invoked in the Prayer and in her own hymn, and identified as mother of the Muses.
- In the Orphic HymnsPrayer.17 places lovely Mnemosyne beside the holy Muses.
- TranslationThe name appears in accusative and genitive forms, and the heading LXXVII likewise uses a genitive to identify the hymn’s recipient.
- A place to readMnemosyne and the Muses invoked together.
- English renderings
- Mnemosyne; the goddess Memory
Meaning
Μνημοσύνη is the named goddess invoked in the Prayer and in her own hymn, and identified as mother of the Muses. The name is inseparable in sense from remembrance, yet it must be distinguished in use from common μνημοσύνη, “remembrance,” and μνήμη, “memory.” A divine name refers to the addressed figure, not merely to a mental event.
Use in the book
Prayer.17 places lovely Mnemosyne beside the holy Muses. LXXVI.1 makes the relation explicit by addressing those Muses as daughters of Mnemosyne and Zeus. LXXVII.1 then calls Mnemosyne herself as queen and Zeus’s bedfellow. Across these occurrences, invocation and parentage support one another: the speaker names a goddess whose children are the powers of song subsequently celebrated. Her hymn develops memory as protection from deception, support for reasoning, and recollection of the rite. Those are activities and benefits attached to the goddess, not a reason to flatten every word for remembering into her personal name. In particular, Hermes’s plural “remembrances” does not introduce a company of several Mnemosynes.
Places to read
- Prayer to Musaeus · Line 17Mnemosyne and the Muses invoked together.
- Hymn LXXVI · Line 1The Muses are explicitly her daughters with Zeus.
- Hymn LXXVII · Line 1Direct invocation of Mnemosyne as queen and Zeus’s bedfellow.
Translation
The name appears in accusative and genitive forms, and the heading LXXVII likewise uses a genitive to identify the hymn’s recipient. The English retains the name, while its translations of μνήμη and μνημοσύνη remain ordinary nouns. This distinction rests on construction and reference, not solely on capital letters in the printed Greek.
Attested forms
Μνημοσύνην; Μνημοσύνης
Occurrence inventory
3 in total. Prayer.17; LXXVI.1; LXXVII.1
Heading and incense rubric evidence
ΜΝΗΜΟΣΥΝΗΣ · LXXVII.heading. LXXVII. ΜΝΗΜΟΣΥΝΗΣ
Local sense
Mnemosyne as the hymn's divine recipient
Other access forms
μνημοσύνη