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Hymn to the Cultural Muses

by Proclus

 

I.

With hymns let us celebrate the educative light that shows us the path to Heaven.
The sonorous Nine Daughters of the Supreme, who redeem
The souls that have lost their way along the depths of life,
With the blameless, inspiring mysteries of books,
From unseen sorrows preserving the terrestrials,
Teaching them to hasten to follow the path that leads above the depths of oblivion,
Aiding them to arrive still pure at their native star,
Whence they had come; when they rushed into the childbirth bed,
While intoxicated with the fumes of material pleasure.

II.

I pray you, Goddesses, calm my tumultuous impulses,
And sober me with the liberal intelligible words of the wise;
Nor let the race of superstitious men stray from the path divine;
The Path of ample splendor, and luxurious fruits!
Ever from the tumult of the straying generations
Allure my wandering soul to your chaste light,
Weighted by, and sanctified from your prolific books,
And may my soul ever enjoy the alluring glory of fine diction!

III.

Listen, Divinities, you hold the reins of sacred wisdom.
Who set men's souls on fire with flames indomitable,
Drawing them, through the cloudy depths, far up to the Immortals,
Purging us with mystic rites of indescribable hymns;
Listen great saviors! from divine books
Grant me the innocent, blameless light that dissipates the clouds,
So I may discover the truth about Man, and the immortal Divinity!
Neither let the Evil-working Spirit restrain me under the Lethean waters of Oblivion,
Ever far from the Blessed; for my soul
Would no longer continue to stray,
Nor suffer the cruel pains of imprisonment in the bands of life!

IV.

Nay, Gods of high and illustrious wisdom,
Masters and leaders, hear me, the hastener
Along the Upward Way! -- Initiate me into the orgiac mysteries
And reveal them by the ceremonies of sacred words!

 

Excerpted from Life, Hymns, and Works

Proclus the Neoplatonic Philosopher, by Thomas Taylor



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