From Modern to Ancient

Proclus Hymn to Aphrodite We hymn the many-named series of Aphrogeneia and the great royal source, from which all immortal winged Erotes have sprung up, of whom some shoot with noeric arrows at souls, in order that, having taken the upward-leading goads of desires, 5 these long after seeing the fiery courts of their mother. Some, because of the evil-averting wishes and providential acts of the Father, wishing to increase the infinite universe with birth, aroused in the souls a yearning for the earthly existence. Others again always supervise the multifarious 10 courses of the wedding songs, so as to produce an immortal race of much-suffering men from mortal stock; and all care for the works of the love-producing Kythereia. But, goddess, for you have a far-hearing ear everywhere, whether you envelop the great heaven all around, 15 where, as they say, you are the divine soul of the everlasting cosmos, or dwell in the aether above the rims of the seven orbits while pouring unyielding powers forward into your series, listen, and may you steer the toilsome course of my life, mistress, with your most righteous arrows, 20 while putting an end to the chilly impulse of unholy desires. Recommended reading for the next week: The Allegory of the Cave v