Writing Prompts From the Muses: 18 Exercises From Ancient Texts

The Greek poets didn't treat inspiration as a mood. They treated it as a meeting. Hesiod says the Muses found him shepherding lambs under Mount Helicon and gave him a voice. You don't need to believe in goddesses to borrow the idea. A good prompt works the same way: it gives you something outside yourself to answer.

The prompts below are original exercises written for this guide. Each one starts from a real passage in a public-domain text, quoted from the translation named, so you can read the source before you write. Use them for journaling, a class or a writing group. Take ten minutes or an afternoon.

Before you start: what the sources say about the nine

Hesiod's Theogony, in Hugh G. Evelyn-White's 1914 translation, names nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Memory): "Cleio and Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene and Terpsichore, and Erato and Polyhymnia and Urania and Calliope," and says Calliope "is the chiefest of them all." In this passage, Hesiod does not give each one a separate art.

The neat list of one art per Muse is not in the Theogony, and even popular handbooks wobble. Thomas Bulfinch's mythology, on Project Gutenberg, assigns Calliope epic poetry, Clio history, Euterpe lyric poetry, Melpomene tragedy, Terpsichore choral dance and song, Erato love poetry, Polyhymnia sacred poetry, Urania astronomy and Thalia comedy. Yet the index of the same edition calls Euterpe the "Muse who presided over music." Treat the list as a useful convention, not ancient law. The prompts in the third section follow Bulfinch's list for convenience.

Prompts from Hesiod's meeting with the Muses

In Evelyn-White's translation, the Muses greet Hesiod with an insult and a warning: "we know how to speak many false things as though they were true; but we know, when we will, to utter true things." Then they give him "a rod, a shoot of sturdy laurel" and breathe into him "a divine voice."

• True and false. Write a short scene in which a narrator tells one convincing lie and one plain truth. Don't mark which is which. Ask a reader to guess, and notice what made the lie believable.
• The unasked-for gift. Write about an ordinary person, at work or at home, who is suddenly handed something that changes what they can do. Show the object as precisely as Hesiod shows the laurel shoot.
• A song against sorrow. Hesiod says that when a singer chants the deeds of old, a troubled listener "forgets his heaviness." Write a short piece meant to lift the spirits of one imagined listener. Decide who they are before you start.

Prompts from Homer's openings and bards

Samuel Butler's Iliad begins "Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans." His Odyssey begins "Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy."

• One feeling, many results. Write an opening sentence that names one person, one emotion and the trouble it caused. Then write the next paragraph without mentioning the emotion again.
• The unnamed hero. Describe a character only through where they have traveled and what they have survived. Hold back the name until the last line, as the Odyssey's opening does.
• The costly gift. In Butler's Odyssey, the bard Demodocus is one "whom the muse had dearly loved, but to whom she had given both good and evil": she gave him song and took his eyesight. Write about a talent that costs its owner something.

Nine prompts for the nine traditional arts

These follow Bulfinch's assignments. If you prefer another list, swap freely.

• Calliope (epic poetry). Write a ten-line mock epic about a small household event, a lost key or a burned dinner. Open with an invocation.
• Clio (history). Write a museum label, 60 words or fewer, for an object from your own life: name, date, material, and one sentence on why it matters.
• Euterpe (lyric poetry, or music). Write words to fit a tune you already know, or describe one sound so exactly that a reader can hear it.
• Melpomene (tragedy). Write a monologue for a character who makes the right choice and still loses.
• Terpsichore (choral dance and song). Write a poem meant to be spoken by a group, with a refrain everyone repeats.
• Erato (love poetry). Write a love poem that never uses the word love. Let objects and gestures carry it.
• Polyhymnia (sacred poetry). Write a hymn of praise for something ordinary. Borrow the shape of the short Homeric Hymn to the Muses and Apollo: an opening ("I will begin with..."), a reason for praise, and a farewell that promises "another song also."
• Urania (astronomy). In the National Gallery's description of Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne, Ariadne's crown becomes the constellation Corona Borealis. Write a story that ends with a person or object being turned into stars.
• Thalia (comedy). Retell a sad myth scene as comedy without changing the events, only the point of view.

Prompts from art and retellings

• Keats's questions. In the "Ode on a Grecian Urn," Keats asks a painted object: "What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?" Pick a Greek vase from a museum's online collection. Write five questions to it, then answer one of them in a short scene.
• Freeze the leap. Titian shows Bacchus in mid-air, leaping from his chariot when he first sees Ariadne. Write a single moment of decision in slow motion, using no more than 150 words.
• Eurydice twice. Ancient poets disagree about her last words. In Henry T. Riley's translation of Ovid, she "did not at all complain of her husband." In James Rhoades's translation of Virgil's Georgics, she cries, "Orpheus! what ruin hath thy frenzy wrought / On me, alas! and thee?" Write her farewell both ways, then decide which you believe.

Making it a habit

• Read the source passage aloud before you write. Rhythm is half the prompt.
• Keep a notebook page for each Muse and add to it over time.
• When you share work in a group, name the source text so others can read it too.
• If you quote an ancient poem in something you publish, use a public-domain translation and name the translator, as this guide does.

Key takeaways

• All prompts here are original exercises, each built on a quoted public-domain passage.
• Hesiod names nine Muses and calls Calliope the chief, but gives them no separate arts.
• The one-art-per-Muse list is not in Hesiod, and even Bulfinch's handbook is inconsistent about Euterpe.
• Ancient disagreements, such as Ovid's and Virgil's different Eurydice, make some of the richest prompts.
• Reading the source first gives your writing a concrete detail to answer.

Sources

• Hesiod, Theogony, and the Homeric Hymn to the Muses and Apollo, in Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1914), Project Gutenberg
• Homer, The Iliad, translated by Samuel Butler, Project Gutenberg
• Homer, The Odyssey, translated by Samuel Butler, Project Gutenberg
• Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology, Project Gutenberg
• John Keats, Keats: Poems Published in 1820, edited by M. Robertson, Project Gutenberg
• Ovid, The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books VIII–XV, translated by Henry T. Riley, Project Gutenberg
• Virgil, The Georgics, translated by James Rhoades, Project Gutenberg
• National Gallery, London, Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne (1520–3)