When the gods created innovation

My deadbeat father is apparently the king of the gods, a much less forgiving fact than you would think, considering he decided to leave me and my sisters with his son, and a tired nymph who truly had no clue how to deal with us.

We were 16 when they told us, and all of my sisters reacted in their own silly ways.

Melpomene, for example, burst into dramatic tears straight away, crying hysterically before Apollo could even finish his announcement. Polymnia, another sister, squealed with excitement, claiming that Zues was the “biggest hero of them all”, and that this incident practically “gifted” her with millions of new ideas, most of which for her songs and poetry. Terpsichore, in her shock, stopped moving around and sat quietly, an occurrence I had witnessed only once before in my whole life. And I ? I thought the whole situation was quite funny. And, in order to avoid Apollo’s usual judgement of “me not taking situations seriously ”, I took the nymph’s old, raven colored mask and wore it, actively hiding my face. I grew to like it, the old mask. I decided to wear it, forever.

The next day we were summoned to entertain the “twelve olympians”, or, more accurately, we were summoned to stand perfectly still and look nice while singing some “ancient melodies”. I despised these gatherings, even as my sisters would enjoy them. It was our only purpose, our only job: entertaining the gods on their meetings. As Apollo inspected us, he took one look at me, and insisted:” Talia, it has been ten hours. Take off that rediculous mask.”

“either the mask stays on, or I’m not coming”, I replied.

Apollo sighed, but nontheless gathered us all to leave for the occasion. It was an exciting event for us, because since we last preformed, us sisters made some fascinating discoveries: Urania, the youngest sister, invented a new science named “Astronomy”. Clio, in her hours of reading and analysis, found a part of history no one knew about before. Even Erato, who usually preferred to wander around, not doing much more than dreaming, was insistent on sharing her newest poetry with the goddess of love-Aphrodite.

Almost all of us were planning on meeting an Olympian, and all of us knew, that once again, they wouldn’t even look in our direction once we mention new knowledge or literature. This time, though, I had a plan. This time, I was going to make the gods listen to our findings.

It was Dionysus’s birthday, and for two hours we sang , as we did normally. What was different now, from any other gathering, was what we we’re planning: my two sisters, Calliope and Euterpe, teamed up with me: we stayed awake for nights, writing, and plotting, creating a play that was one of a kind: a play, that was also a comedy. The penalty for disobeying the gods was death. we knew that, but we’d rather die, than keep hiding.

I despised when our talents were unappreciated, we all did. It was the one thing we could all agree on.

when the clock hit two, precisely two houran after arrival, me, Calliope, and Euterpe tore off our formal dresses, revealing our costume- like appearances. Before long we hushed every diner and sister. When we succeeded, Calliope began her speech: ” my gods and godesses, we are thankful to be graced with your presence. today, for our program, we prepared something...different. It’s both a comedy and play, brought to you by us muses. May we continue to present, although it’s new, and different ?”

Calliope’s question was relatively rhetorical ,since these types of requests were never allowed after the music was decided . I could see the anger in zuesses face, his will to kill all of us at once, erasing the shame of our existence. But it was Dionisus’s birthday, and so he got to decide. In his drunken state, and since he had an affinity for playwriting, he looked at Calliope and said: “a comedy play, you say? Very well. If it’s any good, we will release you, and allow you a place of honor with a cult. But if it’s no good, you will recieve the usual punishment for such matters... understood?”

shocked by the response, calliope shook her head with approval. But, of course, we were confident in our skills, we were the muses- without us, art and literacy simpmay couldn’t exist.

When the play was over and the crowd was crying with laughter, Dionysus kept the promise and gave us a cult, who worshipped us. But more importantly, finally, after so much time, the gods listened to us. And that was how, the gods -learned to create innovation.