The Muses often immersed themselves in the waters when tired or in need of fresh inspiration and then would dance and sing on the tender greensward that bordered the fountains. Hippocrene means 'Spring of the Horse'. Pirene means 'to flow around' and Aganippe means 'The Gentle Mare'. These names were also given to the nymphs who live in and tend to these fountains. The image of a fountain of inspiration is significant.
Water is the giver of life.
Writing is as essential to human existence as the water we drink. He knew that poetry itself is a wellspring, whose waters are full of healing power. Evidence of the power of the Hippocrene to confer creative inspiration on the bard lies within 'Ode to A Nightingale' by John Keats. Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene, With beaded bubbles winking at the brim. Flights of Imagination Little wonder then that writer's make the pilgrimage to the Hippocrene, if only in their fertile imagination, to bathe and wet their lips, that they may be given swiftly flowing verse.