BEAUTY'S WRITING(The 10th of the Muses)

THE Ancient Greeks had a number of explanations on the origins of writing, including a legend from Egypt involving the God Thoth (Θευθ in Greek) and an old story involving the Greek king Kadmos.

But I agree with the expert typographer Jerome Peignot, that the best explanation is that Writing (Γραφή, in Greek) is the tenth of the muses, daughter of Apollo, Sun God and God of the Arts. The muse Γραφή is a twin sister of Cleo, while the mother of all the muses is Mnemosyne (Memory).

For me, it is very right that Writing is a woman and a daughter of memory and art. Women and writing have had a long and special relationship through the millenia -- writing gave women a voice!

Beauty is also writing, in my view. We write our own beauty with the lipstick, brushes and pencils. They are all writing instruments, after all!

But I also mean that there is so much lovely writing on beauty -- advice and beauty manuals, fashion manuals and in the novels themselves.

Women write better about beauty than men (of course). Yet men can write about beauty very well, and without objectifying the woman (as some male writers do). I am talking about Charles Dickens's beautiful heroines -- more about those in another post!