Hail, Goddess, and preserve this city in harmony
and in prosperity. And bring everything wholesome from the field.
Feed the cows, bring fruit, bring corn, bring the harvest.
Especially nurture peace, so that whoever sows may also reap.
Be gracious to me, O thrice-prayed for, great Queen of goddesses!
χαῖρε, θεά, καὶ τάνδε σάω πόλιν ἔν θ' ὁμονοίᾳ
ἔν τ' εὐηπελίᾳ, φέρε δ' ἀγρόθι νόστιμα πάντα· 135
φέρβε βόας, φέρε μᾶλα, φέρε στάχυν, οἶσε θερισμόν,
φέρβε καὶ εἰράναν, ἵν' ὃς ἄροσε τῆνος ἀμάσῃ.
ἵλαθί μοι, τρίλλιστε, μέγα κρείοισα θεάων.
"A peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere olla podrida of quaintness, a pot pourri of pleasant delites, a florilegium of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, facetiae, loosely tied" (Holbrook Jackson, Anatomy of Bibliomania) by a "laudator temporis acti," a "praiser of time past" (Horace, Ars Poetica 173).
Pages
▼
Saturday, October 21, 2023
Prayer to Demeter
Callimachus, Hymn to Demeter 134-138 (tr. Dee L. Clayman):