By Julia Alvarez. 309 pp. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. $18.95. he had four girls. Enough said.'' Those are the words that the mother of the Garcia sisters, introduced in Julia Alvarez's acclaimed novel ''How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents,'' wants inscribed on her tombstone.y Julia Alvarez. 309 pp. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. $18.95. he had four girls. Enough said.'' Those are the words that the mother of the Garcia sisters, introduced in Julia Alvarez's acclaimed novel ''How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents,'' wants inscribed on her tombstone.
The Lxx translates it with the Greek verb sozo, which means to rescue one from peril, danger or suffering, to protect from loss or destruction, to heal, to make whole, to keep alive, to preserve life (physical but especially spiritual - compare Ps 6:4, Ps 86:2).
The word Muse comes from Latin MÅ«sa, which in turn is from Greek Mousa. In Greek dialects, this word is found in the variant forms mÅsa and moisa, and together these indicate that the Greek word comes from an original *montwa. As to the further origins of this form, a clue is provided by the name of Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory and mother of the Muses.