Modern muses

In Competition No. 2504 you were invited to invent nine muses for the 21st century.
It was left to you to decide which form to use, so variety was the order of the day. Some went for straightforward lists; others for verse. D.A. Prince kindly provided her line-up with symbols, but most didn’t. While the lion’s share of entrants had fun coming up with 21st-century names, William Danes-Volkov went out on a limb, sticking to the designations of the original nine but giving them new jobs, more fitting to the modern age.
Bill Greenwell hit the spot with ‘Proactiviope, the muse of business memoranda and blue sky thinking’ as did Michael Saxby’s ‘Portia, the muse of fast motoring’. A commendation goes to Frank McDonald. Here’s a snippet: ‘If dancing delights you Forsythia will call/ and robe you in raiment that’s fit for a ball.’ Champion.
The winners, printed below, net £30 each. Mary Holtby gets £35.

Time passes — and the Muses’ classic range
is somewhat subject to the winds of change.
To Biopicia ousted Clio yields,
bringing new life to History’s barren fields,
while Rotavaria, her bosom-twin,
Proclaims her status as the Muse of Spin.
Where chaste Eminia goes to bed with Art Raucasia belts the lyrics of the heart,
and where Religion sings her special songs
the choir to Polycredita belongs.
Among the Greeks the novel was unknown,
but gay Scrumania claims it as her own.
Since Education now deserves a Muse,
she’s Mutabilia, licensed to confuse.
Melpomene has lost her tragic grace:
brash Plastiflora lives to take her place.
And last, the starry cynosure of men,
divine Ufonia swims into our ken.
Mary Holtby

Diarea: the diarist’s muse: the moving spirit behind those who loose their diaries on to the world.
Wartsnallia: guides biographers through the lower depths of their research.
Thmb: inspires text-messagers to find new ways to disemvowel their language.
Astoltu: