# Sallust On the Gods and the World/The Hymns of Proclus

English hymns transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2008.
THE
HYMNS
OF
PROCLUS.

## ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΗΛΙΟΝ.

ΚΛΥΘΙ πυρος νοερου βασιλευ, χρυσηνιε τιταν. Κλυθι φαȢς ταμια, ζωαρκεος ὧ ανα πηγης Αυτος εχων χληϊδα, και υλαιοις ενι κοσμοις Υψοθεν αρμονιης ρυμα πλȢσιον εξοχετευων. Κεκλυθι, μεσσατιην γαρ εων υπερ αιθερος εδρην 5 Και κοσμου κραδιαιον εχων εριφεγγεα κυκλον, Παντα τεης επλησας εγερσινοοια προνοιης. Ζωσαμενοι δε πλανητες αειθαλεας σεο πυρσους Αιεν υπ’ αλληκτοισι και ακαματοισι χορειαις, Ζωογονους πεμπουσιν επιχθονιοις ραθαμιγγας. 10 Πασα δ’υφ’ υμετερησι παλινοσοισι διφρειαις Ωραων, κατα θεσμον, ανεβλασησε γενεθλη. Στοιχειων δ’ ορυμαγδος επ’ αλληλοισιν ιοντων Παυσατο, σειο φανεντος3 απ’ αρρητȢ γενετηρος. Σοι δ’ υπο μοιραων χορος εικαθεν ασυφελικτος, 15 Αψ δε μετασρωφωσιν αναγκαιης λινον αισης, Ευτε θελεις, περι γαρ κρατεεις, περι δ’ ιφι ανασσεις  σειρής δ’ υμετέρης βασιλεύς θεοπειθέος οίμης  εξέθορεν Φοίβος: κιθάρη δ’ υπό θέσκελα μέλπων  ευνάζει μέγα κύμα βαρυφλοίσβοιο γενέθλης.  σής δ’ από μειλιχόδωρος αλεξικάκου θιασείης  Παιήων βλάστησεν, εήν δ’ επέτασσεν υγείην,  πλήσας αρμονίης παναπήμονος ευρέα κόσμον.  σέ κλυτόν υμνείουσι Διωνύσοιο τοκήα:  ύλης δ’ αύ νεάτοις ενί βένθεσιν εύιον ’’Αττην,  άλλοι δ’ αβρόν ’’Αδωνιν επευφήμησαν αοιδαίς.  δειμαίνουσι δέ σείο θοής μάστιγος απειλήν  δαίμονες ανθρώπων δηλήμονες, αγριόθυμοι,  ψυχαίς ημετέραις δυεραίς κακά πορσύνοντες,  όφρ’ αιεί κατά λαίτμα βαρυσμαράγου βιότοιο  σώματος οτλεύωσιν υπό ζυγόδεσμα πεσούσαι,  υψιτενούς δέ λάθοιντο πατρός πολυφεγγέος αυλής.  αλλά, θεών ώριστε, πυριστεφές, όλβιε δαίμον,  εικών παγγενέταο θεού, ψυχών αναγωγεύ,  κέκλυθι καί με κάθηρον αμαρτάδος αιέν απάσης:  δέχνυσο δ’ ικεσίην πολυδάκρυον, εκ δέ με λυγρών  ρύεο κηλίδων, Ποινών δ’ απάνευθε φυλάσσοις  πρηΰνων θοόν όμμα Δίκης, ή πάντα δέδορκεν.  αιεί δ’ υμετέραισιν αλεξικάκοισιν αρωγαίς ψυχή μέν φάος αγνόν εμή πολύολβον οπάζοις  αχλύν αποσκεδάσας ολεσίμβροτον, ιολόχευτον,  σώματι δ’ αρτεμίην τε καί αγλαόδωρον υγείην,  ευκλείης τ’ επίβησον εμέ, προγόνων τ’ ενί θεσμοίς  Μουσάων ερασιπλοκάμων δώροισι μελοίμην.  όλβον δ’ αστυφέλικτον απ’ ευσεβίης ερατεινής,  εί κε θέλοις, δός, άναξ: δύνασαι δ’ εά πάντα τελέσσαι  ρηιδίως: κρατερήν γάρ έχεις καί απείριτον αλκήν.  ει δέ τι μοιριδίοισιν, ελιξοπόροισιν ατράκτοις,  αστεροδινήτοις υπό νήμασιν ουλοόν άμμιν  έρχεται, αυτός έρυκε τεή μεγάλη τόδε ριπή.

## To the SUN.

Hear golden Titan! king of mental fire, Ruler of light; to thee supreme belongs The splendid key of life’s prolific fount; And from on high thou pour’st harmonic streams In rich abundance into matter’s worlds. 5 Hear! for high raised above th’ ætherial plains, And in the world’s bright middle orb thou reign’st, Whilst all things by thy sov’reign power are filled With mind-exciting, providential care. The starry fires surround thy vig’rous fire, 10 And ever in unweary’d, ceaseless dance, O’er earth wide-bosom’d, vivid dew diffuse. By thy perpetual and repeated course The hours and seasons in succession rise; And hostile elements their conflicts cease, 15 Soon as they view thy awful beams, great king, From deity ineffable and secret born. The steady Parcæ, at thy high command, The fatal thread of mortal life roll back; For wide-extended, sov’reign sway is thine. 20 From thy fair series of attractive song, Divinely charming, Phœbus into light Leaps forth exulting; and with god-like harp, To rapture strung, the raging uproar lulls Of dire-resounding Hyle’s mighty flood. 25 From thy bland dance, repelling deadly ill, Salubrious Pæan blossoms into light, Health far diffusing, and th’ extended world With streams of harmony innoxious fills. Thee too they celebrate in sacred hymns 30 Th’ illustrious source whence mighty Bacchus came; And thee in matter’s utmost stormy depths Euion Ate they for ever sing. But others sound thy praise in tuneful verse, As fam’d Adonis, delicate and fair. 35 Ferocious dæmons, noxious to mankind, Dread the dire anger of thy rapid scourge; Dæmons, who machinate a thousand ills, Pregnant with ruin to our wretched souls, That merg’d beneath life’s dreadful-sounding sea, 40 In body’s chains severely they may toil, Nor e’er remember in the dark abyss The splendid palace of their fire sublime. O best of gods, blest dæmon crown’d with fire, Image of nature’s all-producing god, 45 And the soul’s leader to the realms of light— Hear! and refine me from the stains of guilt; The supplication of my tears receive, And heal my wounds defil’d with noxious gore; The punishments incurr’d by sin remit, 50 And mitigate the swift, sagacious eye Of sacred justice, boundless in its view. By thy pure law, dread evil’s constant foe, Direct my steps, and pour thy sacred light In rich abundance on my clouded soul: 55 Dispel the dismal and malignant shades Of darkness, pregnant with invenom’d ills, And to my body proper strength afford, With health, whose presence splendid gifts imparts. Give lasting fame; and may the sacred care 60 With which the fair-hair’d muses gifts, of old My pious ancestors preserv’d, be mine. Add, if it please thee, all-bestowing god, Enduring riches, piety’s reward; For power omnipotent invests thy throne, 65 With strength immense and universal rule. And if the whirling spindle of the fates Threats from the starry webs pernicion dire, Thy sounding shafts with force resistless send, And vanquish ere it fall th’ impending ill. 70
Ver. 5. Matter’s worlds. According to the Chaldaic theology, there are seven corporeal worlds, viz. one empyrean, three ætherial, and three material, which last three consist of the inerratic sphere, the seven planetary spheres, and a sublunary region. But the empyrean and etherial worlds, when compared with the three last, are said to be immaterial, not that they are void of matter, but because the matter from which they are composed bears the relation of an immaterial essence to that of the other worlds, from the extreme purity and vitality of its nature. I only add, that according to the same theology, the sun moves beyond the inerratic sphere in the last of the etherial worlds. See more concerning this in my notes to the Cratylus.
Ver. 7. That is, in the last ætherial world, which is of course the middle of the seven worlds.
Ver. 17. That is, from the first cause, or the good. But the sun is said, by way of eminence, to be the progeny of this highest god, on account of the analogy which he bears to him in his illuminations. For as the good is the source of light of the intelligible world, so Apollo gives light to the supermundane, and the sun to the sensible, worlds.
Ver. 25. I have used the word Hyle, or matter, instead of generation, γενεθλη, which is employed by Proclus, because it is better adapted to the measure of the verses; but the meaning of each word is nearly the same, for the regions of matter are the regions of generation.
Ver. 36. According to the most accurate division of the Demoniacal order, there are six species of dæmons, as we learn from the excellent Olympiodorus, in his Commentary on the Phædo of Plato. There first of these species is called divine, from subsisting according to the one, or that which is superessential in the mundane gods; the second is denominated intellectual, from subsisting according to the intellect of these gods; the third is rational, from subsisting according to the soul with which the mundane gods are connected; the fourth is natural, being characterized from the nature which depends on these gods; the fifth is corporeal, subsisting according to their bodies; and the sixth is material, subsisting according to the matter which depends on these divinities. Or, we may say, that some of these dæmons are celestial, others etherial, and others aërial; that some are aquatic, others terrestrial, and others subterranean. Olympiodorus adds, that irrational dæmons commence from the aërial species; in proof of which he cites the following verse from some oracles, (most probably from the Zoroastrian oracles):
Ηεριων ελατηρα κυνων χθονιων τε ϗ υγρων.
That is, “Being the charioteer of the aërial, terrestrial and aquatic dogs.” For evil dæmons, as I have shewn in my Dissertation on the Mysteries, appear in the shape of dogs. And perhaps in this verse the sun is the charioteer alluded to, as it wonderfully agrees with what Proclus says of that deity in the verses before us. I only add, that when irrational dæmons are said to be evil, this must not be understood as if they were essentially evil, but that they are noxious only from their employment; that is, from their either calling forth the vices of depraved souls that they may be punished and cured, or from their inflicting punishment alone: for, indeed, there is not any thing essentially evil in the universe; for as the cause of all is goodness itself, every thing subsisting from thence must be endued with the form of good; since it is not the property of fire to refrigerate, nor of light to give obscurity, nor of goodness to produce from itself any thing evil.
Ver. 45. That is, image of the first cause.

## ΕΙΣ ΤΑΣ ΜΟΥΣΑΣ.

῾Υμνέομεν, μερόπων αναγώγιον υμνέομεν φώς,
εννέα θυγατέρας μεγάλου Διός αγλαοφώνους,
αί ψυχάς κατά βένθος αλωομένας βιότοιο
αχράντοις τελετήσιν εγερσινόων από βίβλων
γηγενέων ρύσαντο δυσαντήτων οδυνάων
καί σπεύδειν εδίδαξαν υπέρ βαθυχεύμονα λήθην
ίχνος έχειν, καθαράς δέ μολείν ποτί σύννομον άστρον,
ένθεν απεπλάγχθησαν, ότ’ ες γενεθλήιον ακτήν
κάππεσον, υλοτραφέσσι περί κλήροισι μανείσαι.
αλλά, θεαί, καί εμείο πολυπτοίητον ερωήν
παύσατε καί νοεροίς με σοφών βακχεύσατε μύθοις:
μηδέ μ’ αποπλάγξειεν αδεισιθέων γένος ανδρών
ατραπιτού ζαθέης, εριφεγγέος, αγλαοκάρπου,
αιεί δ’ εξ ομάδοιο πολυπλάγκτοιο γενέθλης
έλκετ’ εμήν ψυχήν παναλήμονα πρός φάος αγνόν,
υμετέρων βρίθουσαν αεξινόων από σίμβλων
καί κλέος ευεπίης φρενοθελγέος αιέν έχουσαν. κλύτε, θεοί, σοφίης ιερής οίηκας έχοντες,
οί ψυχάς μερόπων αναγώγιον αψάμενοι πύρ
έλκετ’ ες αθανάτους, σκότιον κευθμώνα λιπούσας
ύμνων αρρήτοισι καθηραμένας τελετήσι.
κλύτε, σαωτήρες μεγάλοι, ζαθέων δ’ από βίβλων
νεύσατ’ εμοί φάος αγνόν αποσκεδάσαντες ομίχλην,
όφρα κεν εύ γνοίην θεόν άμβροτον ηδέ καί άνδρα:
μηδέ με ληθαίοις υπό χεύμασιν ουλοά ρέζων
δαίμων αιέν έχοι μακάρων απάνευθεν εόντα,
μή κρυερής γενέθλης ενί κύμασι πεπτωκυίαν
ψυχήν ουκ εθέλουσαν εμήν επί δηρόν αλάσθαι
Ποινή τις κρυόεσσα βίου δεσμοίσι πεδήση.
αλλά, θεοί, σοφίης εριλαμπέος ηγεμονήες,
κέκλυτ’, επειγομένω δέ πρός υψιφόρητον αταρπόν
όργια καί τελετάς ιερών αναφαίνετε μύθων.

## To the MUSES.

A sacred light I sing, which leads on high Jove’s nine fam’d daughters, ruler of the sky, Whose splendours beaming o’er this sea of life, On souls hard struggling with its storms of strife, Through mystic rites perfective and refind, 5 (From books which stimulate the sluggish mind) From earth’s dire evils leads them to that shore, Where grief and labour can infest no more; And well instructs them how, with ardent wing, From Lethe’s deep, wide-spreading flood to spring, 10 And how once more their kindred stars to gain, And ancient seats in truth’s immortal plain, From whence they wand’ring fell, thro’ mad desire Of matter’s regions and allotments dire. In me this rage repress, illustrious Nine!15 And fill my mental eye with light divine. Oh may the doctrines of the wise inspire My soul with sacred Bacchanalian fire, Lest men, with filthy piety replete, From paths of beauteous light divert my feet. 20 Conduct my erring soul to sacred light, From wand’ring generation’s stormy night: Wise thro’ your volumes hence, the task be mine, To sing in praise of eloquence divine, Whose soothing power can charm the troubled soul, 25 And throbbing anguish and despair control. Hear, splendid goddesses, of bounteous mind, To whom the helm of wisdom is assign’d, And who the soul with all-attractive flame Lead to the blest immortals whence she came, 30 From night profound enabling her to rise, Forsake dull earth, and gain her native skies, And with unclouded splendour fill the mind, By rites ineffable of hymns refin’d. Hear, mighty saviours! and with holy light, 35 While reading works divine illume my sight, And dissipate these mists, that I may learn Immortal gods from mortals to discern; Lest, plung’d in drowsy Lethe’s black abyss, Some baneful dæmon keep my soul from bliss; 40 And lest deep merged in Hyle’s stormy mire, Her powers reluctant suffer tortures dire, And some chill Fury with her freezing chain, In ling’ring lethargy my life detain. All-radiant governors of wisdom’s light, 45 To me now hast’ning from the realms of night, And ardent panting for the coast of day, Thro’ sacred rites benignant point the way, And mystic knowledge of my view disclose, Since this for ever from your nature flows. 50
Ver. 19. Proclus here, I have no doubt, alludes to the Christians.

## ΕΙΣ ΑΦΡΟΔΙΤΗΝ.

῾Υμνέομεν σειρήν πολυώνυμον ’Αφρογενείης καί πηγήν μεγάλην βασιλήιον, ής άπο πάντες αθάνατοι πτερόεντες ανεβλάστησαν ’’Ερωτες, ών οι μέν νοεροίσιν οιστεύουσι βελέμνοις ψυχάς, όφρα πόθων αναγώγια κέντρα λαβούσαι μητέρος ισχανόωσιν ιδείν πυριφεγγέας αυλάς: οι δέ πατρός βουλήσιν αλεξικάκοις τε προνοίαις ιέμενοι γενεήσιν απείρονα κόσμον αέξειν ψυχαίς ίμερον ώρσαν επιχθονίου βιότοιο. άλλοι δέ γαμίων οάρων πολυειδέας οίμους αιέν εποπτεύουσιν, όπως θνητής από φύτλης αθάνατον τεύξωσι δυηπαθέων γένος ανδρών: πάσιν δ’ έργα μέμηλεν ερωτοτόκου Κυθερείης. αλλά, θεά, πάντη γάρ έχεις αριήκοον ούας, είτε περισφίγγεις μέγαν ουρανόν, ένθα σέ φασι ψυχήν αενάοιο πέλειν κόσμοιο θεείην, είτε καί επτά κύκλων υπέρ άντυγας αιθέρι ναίεις σειραίς υμετέραις δυνάμεις προχέουσ’ αδαμάστους, κέκλυθι, καί πολύμοχθον εμήν βιότοιο πορείην ιθύνοις σέο, πότνα, δικαιοτάτοισι βελέμνοις ουχ οσίων παύουσα πόθων κρυόεσσαν ερωήν.

## To VENUS.

A CELEBRATED royal fount I sing, From foam begotten, and of Loves the spring, Those winged, deathless powers, whose gen’ral sway In diff’rent modes all mortal tribes obey. With mental darts some pierce the god-like soul, 5 And freedom rouse unconscious of control; That anxious hence the centre to explore Which leads on high from matter’s stormy shore, The ardent soul may meditate her flight, And view their mother’s palaces of light. 10 But others, watchful of their father’s will, Attend his councils and his laws fulfil, His bounteous providence o’er all extend, And strengthen generation without end. And others last, the most inferior kind, 15 Preside o’er marriage, and its contracts bind, Intent a race immortal to supply From man calamitous and doom’d to die. While all Cythera’s high commands obey, And bland attention to her labours pay. 20 O venerable goddess! hear my prayer, For nought escapes thine universal ear: Whether t’ embrace the mighty heav’n is thine, And send the world from thence a soul divine; Or whether, seated in th’ ætherial plain 25 Above these seven-fold starry orbs you reign, Imparting to our ties, with bounteous mind, A power untam’d, a vigour unconfin’d;— Hear me, O goddess, and my life defend, With labours sad, and anxious for their end; 30 Transfix my soul with darts of holy fire, And avert the flames of base desire.

## ΑΛΛΟΣ EIΣ ΑΦΡΟΔΙΤΗΝ.

῾Υμνέομεν Λυκίων βασιληίδα, Κουραφροδίτην,
ής ποτ’ αλεξικάκοιο περιπλήθοντες αρωγής
πατρίδος ημετέρης θεοφράδμονες ηγεμονήες
ιερόν ιδρύσαντο κατά πτολίεθρον άγαλμα,
σύμβολ’ έχον νοεροίο γάμου, νοερών υμεναίων
῾Ηφαίστου πυρόεντος ιδ’ ουρανίης ’Αφροδίτης:
καί ε θεήν ονόμηναν ’Ολύμπιον, ής διά κάρτος
πολλάκι μέν θανάτοιο βροτοφθόρον έκφυγον ιόν,
ες δ’ αρετήν έχον όμμα: τελεσσιγόνων δ’ από λέκτρων
έμπεδος αγλαόμητις ανασταχύεσκε γενέθλη,
πάντη δ’ ηπιόδωρος έην βιότοιο γαλήνη.
αλλά καί ημετέρην υποδέχνυσο, πότνα, θυηλήν
ευεπίης: Λυκίων γάρ αφ’ αίματός ειμι καί αυτός.
ψυχήν δ’ άψ ανάειρον απ’ αίσχεος ες πολύ κάλλος,
γηγενέος προφυγούσαν ολοίιον οίστρον ερωής.

## To VENUS.

THEE, Venus, royal Lycian queen, I sing, To whom of old by deity inspir’d, In grateful signal of thy fav’ring aid,
Our country’s guides, a sacred temple rais’d In Lycia; of the intellectual rites 5 Symbolical, which link’d in Hymen’s bands Celestial Venus and the god of fire. Olympian hence they called thee, by whose power They oft avoided death’s destructive ire, To virtue looking; and from fertile beds 10 Through thee, an offspring provident and strong Rose into light; while all their days were crown’d With gentle peace, the source of tranquil bliss. Illustrious queen! benignantly accept The grateful tribute of this sacred hymn, 15 For we from Lycian blood derive our birth. Expell base passions from my wand’ring soul, And once more raise her to true beauty’s light; Averting far the irritation dire, And rage insane, of earth-begotten love. 20

## ΕΙΣ ΑΘΗΝΑΝ.

Κλύθί μευ, αιγιόχοιο Διός τέκος, η γενετήρος
πηγής εκπροθορούσα καί ακροτάτης από σειρής:
αρσενόθυμε, φέρασπι, μεγασθενές, οβριμοπάτρη,
Παλλάς, Τριτογένεια, δορυσσόε, χρυσεοπήληξ,
κέκλυθι: δέχνυσο δ’ ύμνον εύφρονι, πότνια, θυμώ,
μηδ’ αύτως ανέμοισιν εμόν ποτε μύθον εάσης,
η σοφίης πετάσασα θεοστιβέας πυλεώνας
καί χθονίων δαμάσασα θεημάχα φύλα Γιγάντων:
ή πόθον ῾Ηφαίστοιο λιλαιομένοιο φυγούσα
παρθενίης εφύλαξας εής αδάμαντα χαλινόν:
ή κραδίην εσάωσας αμιστύλλευτον άνακτος
αιθέρος εν γυάλοισι μεριζομένου ποτέ Βάκχου
Τιτήνων υπό χερσί, πόρες δέ ε πατρί φέρουσα,
όφρα νέος βουλήσιν υπ’ αρρήτοισι τοκήος
εκ Σεμέλης περί κόσμον ανηβήση Διόνυσος:
ής πέλεκυς, θήρεια ταμών προθέλυμνα κάρηνα,
πανδερκούς ῾Εκάτης παθέων ηύνησε γενέθλην:
ή κράτος ήραο σεμνόν εγερσιβρότων αρετάων:
ή βίοτον κόσμησας όλον πολυειδέσι τέχναις
δημιοεργείην νοερήν ψυχαίσι βαλούσα:
ή λάχες ακροπόληα * * * * σύμβολον ακροτάτης μεγάλης σέο, πότνια, σειρής:
ή χθόνα βωτιάνειραν εφίλαο, μητέρα βίβλων,
ούνομα δ’ άστεϊ δώκας έχειν σέο καί φρένας εσθλάς:
κλύθί μευ, η φάος αγνόν απαστράπτουσα προσώπου:
δός δέ μοι όλβιον όρμον αλωομένω περί γαίαν,
δός ψυχή φάος αγνόν απ’ ευιέρων σέο μύθων
καί σοφίην καί έρωτα: μένος δ’ έμπνευσον έρωτι
τοσσάτιον καί τοίον, όσον χθονίων από κόλπων
αύ ερύση πρός ’’Ολυμπον ες ήθεα πατρός εήος.
ει δέ τις αμπλακίη με κακή βιότοιο δαμάζει—
ίλαθι, μειλιχόβουλε, σαόμβροτε, μηδέ μ’ εάσης
ριγεδαναίς Ποιναίσιν έλωρ καί κύρμα γενέσθαι
κείμενον εν δαπέδοισιν, ότι τεός εύχομαι είναι.
κέκλυθι, κέκλυθ’, άνασσα: πολύλλιστος δέ σ’ ικάνω
χρειοί αναγκαίη: σύ δέ μείλιχον ούας υπόσχες.

## To MINERVA.

Daughter of ægis-bearing Jove, divine, Propitious to thy vot’ries prayer incline; From thy great father’s fount supremely bright, Like fire resounding, leaping into light. Shield-bearing goddess, hear, to whom belong 5 A manly mind, and power to tame the strong! Oh, sprung from matchless might, with joyful mind Accept this hymn; benevolent and kind! The holy gates of wisdom by thy hand Are wide unfolded; and the daring band 10 Of earth-born giants, that in impious fight Strove with thy fire, were vanquish’d by thy might. Once by thy care, as sacred poets sing, The heart of Bacchus, swiftly-slaughter’d king, Was sav’d in æther, when, with fury fir’d, 15 The Titans fell against his life conspir’d; And with relentless rage and thirst for gore, Their hands his members into fragments tore: But ever watchful of thy father’s will, Thy pow’r preserv’d him from succeeding ill, 20 Till from the secret counsels of his sire, And born from Semele through heav’nly fire, Great Dionysius to the world at length Again appear’d with renovated strength. Once, too, thy warlike axe, with matchless sway, 25 Lopp’d from their savage neck the heads away Of furious beasts, and thus the pests destroy’d Which long all-seeing Hecate annoy’d. By thee benevolent great Juno’s might Was rous’d, to furnish mortals with delight: 30 And through life’s wide and various range ’tis thine Each part to beautify with arts divine: Invigorated hence by thee, we find A demiurgic impulse in the mind. Towers proudly rais’d, and for protection strong, 35 To thee, dread guardian, deity belong, As proper symbols of th’ exalted height Thy series claims amidst the courts of light. Lands are belov’d by thee to learning prone, And Athens, O Athena, is thy own! 40 Great goddess, hear! and on my dark’ned mind Pour thy pure light in measure unconfin’d;— That sacred light, O all-protecting queen, Which beams eternal from thy face serene: My soul, while wand’ring on the earth, inspire 45 With thy own blessed and impulsive fire; And from thy fables, mystic and divine, Give all her powers with holy light to shine. Give love, give wisdom, and a power to love, Incessant tending to the realms above; 50 Such as, unconscious of base earth’s control, Gently attracts the vice-subduing soul; From night’s dark region aids her to retire, And once more gain the palace of her sire: And if on me some just misfortune press, 55 Remove th’ affliction, and thy suppliant bless. All-saving goddess, to my prayer incline! Nor let those horrid punishments be mine Which guilty souls in Tartarus confine, With fetters fast’ned to its brazen floors, 60 And lock’d by hell’s tremendous iron doors. Hear me, and save (for power is all thy own) A soul desirous to be thine alone.
Ver. 55, 56. These lines are wanting in the first edition of this hymn in my Dissertation on the Mysteries; and this because the verse to which they correspond in the Greek was not then properly corrected.
* ↑ An epithet of Bacchus.
* ↑ Proclus, in his Scholia on the Cratylus, beautifully observes as follows, concerning the Muses: The whole world is bound in indissoluble bonds from Apollo and the Muses, and is both one and all-perfect, through the communications of these divinities; possessing the former through the Apollonical monad,* but its all-perfect subsistence through the number of the Muses. For the number nine, which is generated from the first perfect number, (that is, three) is, through similitude and sameness, accommodated to the multiform causes of the mundane order and harmony; all of them at the same time being collected into one summit for the purpose of producing one consummate perfection; for the Muses generate the variety of reasons with which the world is replete; but Apollo comprehends in union all the multitude of these. And the Muses give subsistence to the harmony of soul; but Apollo is the leader of intellectual and indivisible harmony. The Muses distribute the phenomena according to harmonical reasons; but Apollo comprehends unapparent and separate harmony. And though both give subsistence to the same things, yet the Muses effect this according to number, but Apollo according to union. And the Muses indeed distribute the unity of Apollo; but Apollo unites and contains harmonic multitude: for the multitude of the Muses proceeds from the essence of Musagetes, which is both separate and subsists according to the nature of the one. * Apollo is the monad of the Muses, i. e. the proximately exempt producing cause of their multitude, and is that in which their summits are fixed like the roots of trees in the earth.
* ↑ For an account of this divinity, consult my notes on the Cratylus.