Proklos' Hymn to Athena

Hi everyone, forgive me, I literally have zero time to write today, and didn't realize that yesterday, so I didn't write anything then either. Please forgive me and come back tomorrow when there will be an actual post. For today, let me leave you with Proklos' beautiful Hymn to Minerva (Athena).

Proklos (Πρόκλος) was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major Classical philosophers. He was alive from 8 February 412 AD to 17 April 485 AD), and amongst other things, he wrote five beautiful hymns about the Roman Gods, which can be interpreted for the Hellenic ones as well. The surviving works consist of two hymns to Venus (Aphrodite), one to the Sun (Helios), one to the Muses, and one 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

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

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,

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,

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,

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:

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,

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!

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

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;

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,

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,

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.