" So why was the goddess of Memory linked with artistic creation,you may well ask"
"Because for the Greeks creativity wasn't associated with the idea of producing something new-as it is today.The artist built upon, or reworked, the great intellectual and cultural achievements of the past.
So a great memory,you see, was considered a key part of creative activity- it gave the artist more material to draw upon, as well as a richer, more complex intellect. When James Joyce said ' I invented nothing, but I forgot nothing either," I think he was referring to exactly this sort of thing. "

― Jeffrey Moore , The Memory Artists