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The Muses dance beside Apollo, with Mars and Venus above and Mercury and Pegasus at right.
Parnassus. Andrea Mantegna, 1497.Andrea Mantegna, Parnassus, Musée du Louvre. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain. · Source · Public domain. Detail shown.The Muses dance in the foreground of this mythological scene.

Hymns of Proclus · Hymn 03

The Muses, Light That Raises Souls

Ὕμνος εἰς τὰς Μούσας

Proclus · 17 lines · The Nine Muses

Art and inspirationWisdomInitiation

Prayer and ritual

These hymns may be spoken as complete prayers to the Gods. Within the Temple’s practice, a ritual is a direct theurgical act; hymnody gathers the mind and turns it toward the Divine, helping the initiate enter reverent communion with the Gods.

Use a hymn on its own in place of another prayer, or add it to the prayer portion of a suitable ritual. Choose according to the deity addressed and the petition expressed in the hymn. When combining them, preserve the ritual’s prescribed sequence and let the hymn give voice to its purpose.

The petition of this hymn

For inspired sacred learning and the soul’s return from forgetfulness to pure light.

Recite this hymn before sacred study, hymnody, or contemplative reading. It may supplement a rite of initiation or illumination, asking the Muses to bring the soul through their mind-awakening teachings toward its own divine star.

English hieratic rendering

Hymn 03 · An English rendering aligned with the Greek lines.

  1. We hymn, we hymn the light that raises mortals upward,
  2. the nine clear-voiced daughters of great Zeus,
  3. who delivered souls wandering in the depths of life,
  4. through undefiled rites drawn from books that awaken the mind,
  5. from the earth-born sufferings so hard to endure.
  6. They taught them to hasten, to set their footsteps beyond
  7. forgetfulness with its deep streams, and come pure to their companion star,
  8. from which they wandered when they fell to the shore of generation,
  9. maddened over the portions nourished by matter.
  10. But, O Goddesses, still also my much-agitated rush,
  11. and fill me with Bacchic inspiration through the intellective teachings of the wise.
  12. Let no race of those who have no reverence for the Gods lead me astray
  13. from the sacred path, radiant and glorious in its fruit.
  14. Ever from the tumult of generation with its many wanderings
  15. draw my soul, wandering everywhere, toward pure light,
  16. laden with fullness from your hives that enlarge the mind,
  17. and ever possessing the glory of speech that charms the understanding.

Ancient Greek & pronunciation

Read the English pronunciation spelling directly below each Greek line.

17 Greek lines
  1. Ὑμνέομεν, μερόπων ἀναγώγιον ὑμνέομεν φῶς,eem-NEH-oh-mehn, meh-ROH-pohn ah-nah-GHOH-yee-ohn eem-NEH-oh-mehn FOHS,
  2. ἐννέα θυγατέρας μεγάλου Διὸς ἀγλαοφώνους,eh-NEH-ah thee-ghah-TEH-rahs meh-GHAH-loo dhee-OHS ah-ghlah-oh-FOH-noos,
  3. αἳ ψυχὰς κατὰ βένθος ἀλωομένας βιότοιοEH psee-KHAHS kah-TAH VEHN-thohs ah-loh-oh-MEH-nahs vee-OH-tee-oh
  4. ἀχράντοις τελετῇσιν ἐγερσινόων ἀπὸ βίβλωνah-KHRAHN-dees teh-leh-TEE-seen eh-yehr-see-NOH-ohn ah-POH VEE-vlohn
  5. γηγενέων ῥύσαντο δυσαντήτων ὀδυνάωνyee-yeh-NEH-ohn REE-sahn-doh dhee-sahn-DEE-tohn oh-dhee-NAH-ohn
  6. καὶ σπεύδειν ἐδίδαξαν ὑπὲρ βαθυχεύμονα λήθηνKEH SPEHV-dheen eh-DHEE-dhahk-sahn ee-PEHR vah-thee-HYEHV-moh-nah LEE-theen
  7. ἴχνος ἔχειν, καθαρὰς δὲ μολεῖν ποτὶ σύννομον ἄστρον,EEKH-nohs EH-hyeen, kah-thah-RAHS DHEH moh-LEEN poh-TEE SEE-noh-mohn AH-strohn,
  8. ἔνθεν ἀπεπλάγχθησαν, ὅτ’ ἐς γενεθλήιον ἀκτὴνEHN-thehn ah-peh-PLAHNKH-thee-sahn, OHT’ ehs yeh-nehth-LEE-ee-ohn ahk-TEEN
  9. κάππεσον, ὑλοτραφέσσι περὶ κλήροισι μανεῖσαι.KAH-peh-sohn, ee-loh-trah-FEH-see peh-REE KLEE-ree-see mah-NEE-seh.
  10. ἀλλά, θεαί, καὶ ἐμεῖο πολυπτοίητον ἐρωὴνah-LAH, theh-EH, KEH eh-MEE-oh poh-leep-TEE-ee-tohn eh-roh-EEN
  11. παύσατε καὶ νοεροῖς με σοφῶν βακχεύσατε μύθοις·PAHF-sah-teh KEH noh-eh-REES meh soh-FOHN vahk-HYEHF-sah-teh MEE-thees·
  12. μηδέ μ’ ἀποπλάγξειεν ἀδεισιθέων γένος ἀνδρῶνmee-DHEH m’ ah-poh-PLAHNK-see-ehn ah-dhee-see-THEH-ohn YEH-nohs ahn-DHROHN
  13. ἀτραπιτοῦ ζαθέης, ἐριφεγγέος, ἀγλαοκάρπου·ah-trah-pee-TOO zah-THEH-ees, eh-ree-fehn-GEH-ohs, ah-ghlah-oh-KAHR-poo·
  14. αἰεὶ δ’ ἐξ ὁμάδοιο πολυπλάγκτοιο γενέθληςeh-EE dh’ ehks oh-MAH-dhee-oh poh-lee-PLAHNG-tee-oh yeh-NEHTH-lees
  15. ἕλκετ’ ἐμὴν ψυχὴν παναλήμονα πρὸς φάος ἁγνόν,EHL-keht’ eh-MEEN psee-HYEEN pah-nah-LEE-moh-nah PROHS FAH-ohs ahgh-NOHN,
  16. ὑμετέρων βρίθουσαν ἀεξινόων ἀπὸ σίμβλωνee-meh-TEH-rohn VREE-thoo-sahn ah-ehk-see-NOH-ohn ah-POH SEEM-vlohn
  17. καὶ κλέος εὐεπίης φρενοθελγέος αἰὲν ἔχουσαν.KEH KLEH-ohs eh-veh-PEE-ees freh-noh-thehl-YEH-ohs eh-EHN EH-khoo-sahn.
Short sound guide for English speakers

Every line beneath the Greek uses English pronunciation spellings. Say each hyphenated syllable in sequence and emphasize the syllable in CAPITALS. For example, οὐρανόθεν is oo-rah-NOH-thehn. Read adjacent vowels separately: theh-AH has two syllables; oo-rah-NEE-een has four. Hyphens guide the voice; they do not mark pauses.

SpellingSound to make
ah · eh · ee · oh · oofather · met · see · go without its final glide · moon. Keep these vowels clear in unstressed syllables too.
th · dhThe unvoiced th in thin · the voiced th in this. Thus DHEE begins with the sound in “thee.”
khThe ch in Scottish loch or German Bach: let air pass at the back of the mouth, without closing it into a k.
hyThe breathy beginning of a carefully spoken Hugh. Raise the middle of the tongue toward the roof of the mouth and let air pass without voice. In shy, sound s followed by hy; do not use the English sh sound or the English word “shy.”
ghMake the kh sound above, then add voice. Keep the passage open; this is a flowing sound, not a hard g.
y · gy as in yes, with gentle friction · always a hard g as in get.
rTap the tongue lightly behind the upper teeth, or use a light roll.
ks · psSound both consonants, even at the beginning of a word: ks as in backs, ps as in lips.
n-g · m-b · n-dSound the nasal and the following consonant. In AHN-geh-leh, the n-g group is like finger, with the g audible.

Always sound s as in hiss, even at the end of DHEE-kees; z is voiced, as in zero. All other consonants have their usual English sounds. Initial consonant groups may be unfamiliar: sound every written consonant, without inserting an extra vowel. A word without capitals carries no written stress in the Greek. Where two syllables have capitals, both written accents are retained. An apostrophe marks a vowel already elided in the Greek; do not add it back. A hyphen at the end of a Greek verse joins the unfinished word to the next verse.

These spellings follow the Modern Greek liturgical reading used throughout this library. Breathings and iota subscripts are silent; separately pronounced vowels remain separate. The few Greek consonants without an exact English equivalent use the sound cues above. Ancient vowel length, pitch accent and metre are not reconstructed.

Hymn notes

Sacred meaning

The Muses’ books and undefiled rites release souls from the suffering of earthly wandering. Their guidance leads beyond the deep current of forgetfulness toward the star with which the soul has kinship. The prayer seeks an inspired mind, fidelity to the sacred path, and the fullness of eloquence drawn from their divine hives.

Textual note

Abel III, printed pp. 279–280. Complete in this edition, 17 verses. Abel’s marginal verse numerals restart incorrectly in the latter portion; the continuous poem contains seventeen verses. “Companion star” renders σύννομον ἄστρον, retaining the soul’s relation to its star.

Text and attribution

Greek text: Eugenius Abel, Orphica (1885), printed pages 279, 280. The text follows the printed main reading of this edition; source-specific variants are recorded where relevant. Read the digitised edition. Greek source. Manual transcription collated against Abel’s printed main text. The English hieratic rendering and suggested devotional use are new editorial work. The applications are guidance for this library, not additional lines of the ancient poem.