Mnemonics and Bacon

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1. A Brief Overview of Classical Mnemonics
This essay aims first to provide an overview of memory in the history of ideas
and, thence, deals with how mnemonics helps mold Bacon’s scientific method. In an
age that has witnessed many great strides in human technology of storing up
information, it is difficult, if not impossible, for modern readers to envision that
mnemonics played a significant role in Western civilization before the advent of
printing. Indeed, the intertwining between memory and rhetoric dates back to
ancient Greece. Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory and remembrance, represents
“the necessary rote memorization to preserve history and sagas” before the invention
of writing, and is accordingly depicted as the mother of the Muses. 1 What arrests
our further attention is that in Greek mythology Mnemosyne is also represented as
the inventor of language and words. 2 For example, in Plato’s Critias, Critias says
that “But besides the gods and goddesses whom you have mentioned, I would
specially invoke Mnemosyne; for all the important part of my discourse is dependent
on her favour, and if I can recollect and recite enough of what was said by the priests
and brought hither by Solon, I doubt not that I shall satisfy the requirements of this
theatre” (529). 3
1 I learned of this source from http://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanisMnemosyne.html.
2 Ibid.
3 Caplan devotes a useful discussion of Mnemosyne’s varied profiles in ancient Greek
literature. According to Caplan, the earliest characterization of Mnemosyne as the mother
of the Muses dates back to Hesiod’s Theogany, wherein Mnemosyne is portrayed as the
daughter of Earth and Heaven (Caplan 200). In his study of the making and recitation of
epic, Chen similarly mentions the importance of “Mnēmosunē” for Homer (38); that is, in
invoking the Muse, the poet entreats for, besides inspiration, a tenacious memory as well
to recite his creation (103). In the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, the son of Maia “honors
Mnemosyne in his song first among all the gods” (Caplan 200). For several other
Greco-Roman deities associated with memory, see Caplan, p. 200. It should be further
noted that the term “Homeric” should not mislead us to think that these Homeric hymns
are composed by the creator of Iliad and Odyssey. The earliest reference to the Homeric
hymns comes from Thucydides, who ascribes these hymns to Homer. These hymns are
“Homeric” in that they share the same epic meter (dactylic hexameter), dialect, and style
with Iliad and Odyssey (Rayor 1). These poems are “hymns” because they are devotional
songs sung in honor of gods, “usually at a contest held as part of a religious festival or of
some other solemn occasion” (Athanassakis xiv). Today the authorship of these Homeric
Hymns remains a moot question. Interested readers can see Athanassakis, pp. xiii-xvii,
and Rayor, pp. 1-13.