Huge thanks to Crow of Minerva editor Roisin Ní Neactain for including a poem poet Maeve McKenna and I collaborated on. The piece has been through several drafts and was initially formed over a year ago. Auto-da-fé can be read here.
On the subject of Minerva (associated with the Greek Athena), the story goes that when Perseus beheaded Medusa, Pegasus grew from some spilt blood. Minerva tamed the winged horse and gave him to the Muses. It was a kick from Pegasus' hoof that created the spring of Hippocrene. It was said that if one drank from this fountain poetic inspiration would follow.
Ovid recounts in the Metamorphoses Minerva speaking:
“Fame has given to me
the knowledge of a new-made fountain—gift
of Pegasus, that fleet steed, from the blood
of dread Medusa sprung—it opened when
his hard hoof struck the ground.—It is the cause
that brought me.—For my longing to have seen
this fount, miraculous and wonderful,
grows not the less in that myself did see
the swift steed, nascent from maternal blood.”
