Proclus' Hymn to Athena

Proclus, Thomas Taylor (T) · Mystic Verse and Insights Series · 3 pages

Three pages carrying the hymn of Proclus to Athena complete, in Thomas Taylor's rhymed couplets.

The hymn opens by placing the goddess: daughter of aegis-bearing Jove, sprung from her father's fount supremely bright, like fire resounding and leaping into light — a shield-bearing goddess to whom belong a manly mind and the power to tame the strong. Her deeds are then recited as evidence for the petition to come. The holy gates of wisdom are unfolded by her hand; the earth-born giants who strove with her sire in impious fight were vanquished by her might; and, as the sacred poets sing, the heart of the swiftly-slaughtered Bacchus was saved in aether by her care when the Titans tore his limbs into fragments, so that Dionysus could be born again from Semele through heavenly fire with renovated strength. Her warlike axe lopped the heads from furious beasts that had long annoyed Hecate; she roused Juno's might to furnish mortals with delight; and it is hers to beautify each part of life's wide range with arts divine, so that a demiurgic impulse is found in the mind by her invigoration. Towers proudly raised and strong for protection are named as her proper symbols, and lands given to learning are said to be beloved by her — with the line that Athens is her own. The last section is personal petition: that she pour pure light in measure unconfined on the poet's darkened mind, that sacred light which beams eternal from her serene face, inspire his soul while it wanders on earth with her own blessed and impulsive fire, and give all its powers to shine with holy light from her mystic fables.

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