So, what is the Olympus mnemonic and what are the nerves?

Are you sure you really wanted to know?

On Old Olympus' timbered tops, a Finn and German viewed some hops.


I Olfactory
II Optic
III Oculomotor
IV Trochlear
V Trigeminal
VI Abducens
VII Facial
VIII Auditory
IX Glossopharyngeal
X Vagus
XI (Spinal) Accessory
XII Hypoglossal

They are the Official Names of the twelve cranial nerves, and are often referred to with Roman Numerals. I put "Spinal" is in parentheses, because of the variant mnemonic that ran
"Oh, Oh, Oh, to touch and feel a girl's vagina, ah!"

which is the one I learned, and has an A instead of an S for number XI. My sister, on the other hand, being one of only four women in her class in a different medical school, learned about Old Olympus because since she was a girl no one would tell her the "real" mnemonic.

But, you know, the silly mnemonics work, and we still remember the sequence even though we haven't used it in forty years.

There's also the one about which nerves innervate the muscles that move the eye, which went (let's see how this preformatted text comes out)

  LR (SO )
6 4 3



That's a pseudo-chemistry formula, and it is read "L R six, S O four taken three times"
and means that the Lateral Rectus muscle is moved by the sixth nerve, the Superior Oblique by the fourth nerve, and the other four by the third nerve.

Medical school, and anatomy in particular, is just chock full of such delights.

I won't even begin to tell you about the mnemonic for the five branches of the third division of the trigeminal nerve. Come up with your own, the way my classmate George did. I will say only that they are the Temporal, Zygomatic, Buccal, Mandibular, and Cervical. (but I can PM you, if you insist.}

EDIT: This thread is continued on Mnemoniacs II - for greater ease of loading. (That's what happens with more-than-100 posts in a thread, so we transplant it!)

Post anything after this post at some risk of not being seen!