Praxis Thinking

From Thomas Taylor’s translation of The Orphic Hymns (1792)

To Musæus
Attend Musæus to my sacred song
And learn what rites to sacrifice belong.
Jove (Zeus) I envoke, the earth (Gaia), and solar light (Helios),
The moon’s (Mene) pure splendor, and the stars of night;
Thee Neptune (Poseidon), ruler of sea profound,
Dark-hair’d, whose waves begirt the solid ground;
Ceres (Demeter) abundant, and of lovely mien,
And Proserpine (Persephone) infernal Pluto’s (Hades) queen;
The huntress Dian (Artemis), and bright Phœbus (Apollo) rays,
Far-darting God, the theme Delphic praise;
And Bacchus (Dionysos) , honur’d by the heav’nly choir, 
And raging Mars (Ares) , and Vulcan (Hephaestus)  god of fire;
The mighty pow’r who from foam to light,
And Pluto (Hades)  potent in the realms of night;
With Hebe young, and Hercules the strong,
And to whom the care of births belong;
Justice and Piety august I call,
And much-fam’d nymphs, and Pan the god of all.
To Juno ( Hera) sacred, and to Mem’ry (Mnemosyne) fair,
And the chaste Muses (Mousai) I address my pray’r;
The various year, the Graces and the Hours,
Fair-haired Latona (Leto), and Dione’s pow’rs;
Armed Curetes (Kouretes) household Gods I call,
With those who spring from Jove the king of all;
Th’ Idæn Gods (Olympians), the angel of the skies,
And righteous Themis, with sagacious eyes;
With ancient night, and day-light I implore,
And Faith, and Justice dealing right I adore;
Saturn (Cronus) and Rhea, and great Thetis too,
Hid in a veil of bright celestial blue:
I call great Ocean, and the beauteous train
Of nymphs, who dwell in chambers of the main;
Atlas the strong, and ever in its prime,
Vig’rous Eternity (Aeon) and endless Time (Chronos);
The Stygian (Styx) pool, and placid Gods beside,
And various Genii (daemon),  that o’er men preside;
Illustrious Providence, the noble train
Of dæmon forms, who fill th’ ætherial plain;
Or live in air, in water, earth, or fire,
Or deep beneath the solid ground retire.
Bacchus (Dionysos) and Semele the friends of all,
And white Leucothea of the sea I call;
Palæmon bounteous, and Adrastria great,
And sweet-tongu’d Victory (Nike), with success elate;
Great Esculapius (Asklepios), skill’d to cure disease,
And dread Minerva (Pallas), whom fierce battles please;
Thunder and winds in mighty columns pent,
With dreadful roaring struggling hard for vent;
Attis, the mother of the pow’rs on high,
And fair Adonis, never doom’d to die,
End and beginning he is all to all,
These with propitious aid I gently call;
And to my holy sacrifice invite,
To Hecate
The pow’r who reigns in deepest hell and night;
I call Einodian Hecate, lovely dame, 
Of earthly, wat’ry, and celestial frame,
Sepulchral, in saffron veil array’d,
Pleas’d with dark ghosts that wander thro’ the shade;
Persian, unconquerable huntress hail!
The world’s key-bearer never doom’d to fail;
On the rough rock to wander thee delights, 
Leader and nurse be present to our rites; 
Propitious grant our just desires success,
Accept our homage, and the incense bless .