 Inspiration of that kind is a common idea. Either a divine source provides the poet with information needed for writing the poem (information about past events or the gods’ lives, for example); or more generally the source gives the poet the talent needed for writing anything. The idea is far from original with Plato. Within Greek culture alone there are Homer and Hesiod, who begin their great works asking a Muse to “speak into” them. In this case, by contrast with that of imitation, Plato finds a new use for an idea that has a cultural and religious meaning before him (Ledbetter 2003, Murray 1981, Tigerstedt 1970).