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Renaissance fresco showing an assembly of classical gods seated among clouds.
Raphael’s Council of Gods, 1517–1518, Villa Farnesina, Rome.Raphael; image via Web Gallery of Art / Wikimedia Commons; Public domain. · Source · Public domain. Full image shown.

Hymns of Proclus · Hymn 04

All the Gods, Guides of Sacred Wisdom

Ὕμνος κοινὸς εἰς θεούς

Proclus · 15 lines · The Gods

WisdomInitiationPurification

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 the revelation of sacred wisdom and ascent from forgetfulness toward the immortal Gods.

Use this hymn as a complete prayer at the beginning of sacred study or a gathering of devotion. It may supplement an existing ritual of initiation or purification, asking the Gods to illuminate the sacred teachings and open the upward path.

English hieratic rendering

Hymn 04 · An English rendering aligned with the Greek lines.

  1. Hear, O Gods, who hold the rudders of sacred wisdom,
  2. who, kindling the fire that raises mortal souls,
  3. draw them toward the immortals, leaving the dark recess behind,
  4. purified by the ineffable rites of hymns.
  5. Hear, great Saviours; from the sacred books
  6. incline pure light toward me, dispersing the mist,
  7. that I may rightly know the immortal God and also the human being.
  8. Let no daimon working ruin beneath the streams of forgetfulness
  9. ever hold me far away from the Blessed;
  10. Fallen amid the waves of chilling generation,
  11. let not my soul, unwilling to wander for long,
  12. be bound by chilling retribution in the fetters of life.
  13. But, O Gods, leaders of radiant wisdom,
  14. hear; as I hasten toward the path that bears on high,
  15. reveal the mysteries and initiations of the sacred teachings.

Ancient Greek & pronunciation

Read the English pronunciation spelling directly below each Greek line.

15 Greek lines
  1. Κλῦτε, θεοί, σοφίης ἱερῆς οἴηκας ἔχοντες,KLEE-teh, theh-EE, soh-FEE-ees ee-eh-REES EE-ee-kahs EH-khohn-dehs,
  2. οἳ ψυχὰς μερόπων ἀναγώγιον ἁψάμενοι πῦρEE psee-KHAHS meh-ROH-pohn ah-nah-GHOH-yee-ohn ahp-SAH-meh-nee PEER
  3. ἕλκετ’ ἐς ἀθανάτους, σκότιον κευθμῶνα λιπούσας,EHL-keht’ ehs ah-thah-NAH-toos, SKOH-tee-ohn kehfth-MOH-nah lee-POO-sahs,
  4. ὕμνων ἀρρήτοισι καθηραμένας τελετῇσι.EEM-nohn ah-REE-tee-see kah-thee-rah-MEH-nahs teh-leh-TEE-see.
  5. κλῦτε, σαωτῆρες μεγάλοι, ζαθέων δ’ ἀπὸ βίβλωνKLEE-teh, sah-oh-TEE-rehs meh-GHAH-lee, zah-THEH-ohn dh’ ah-POH VEE-vlohn
  6. νεύσατ’ ἐμοὶ φάος ἁγνὸν ἀποσκεδάσαντες ὁμίχλην,NEHF-saht’ eh-MEE FAH-ohs ahgh-NOHN ah-poh-skeh-DHAH-sahn-dehs oh-MEE-khleen,
  7. ὄφρα κεν εὖ γνοίην θεὸν ἄμβροτον ἠδὲ καὶ ἄνδρα·OH-frah kehn EHV GHNEE-een theh-OHN AHM-vroh-tohn ee-DHEH KEH AHN-dhrah·
  8. μηδέ με ληθαίοις ὑπὸ χεύμασιν οὐλοὰ ῥέζωνmee-DHEH meh lee-THEH-ees ee-POH HYEHV-mah-seen oo-loh-AH REH-zohn
  9. δαίμων αἰὲν ἔχοι μακάρων ἀπάνευθεν ἐόντα,DHEH-mohn eh-EHN EH-hyee mah-KAH-rohn ah-PAH-nehf-thehn eh-OHN-dah,
  10. μὴ κρυερῆς γενέθλης ἐνὶ κύμασι πεπτωκυῖανMEE kree-eh-REES yeh-NEHTH-lees eh-NEE KEE-mah-see pehp-toh-KEE-ahn
  11. ψυχὴν οὐκ ἐθέλουσαν ἐμὴν ἐπὶ δηρὸν ἀλᾶσθαιpsee-HYEEN ook eh-THEH-loo-sahn eh-MEEN eh-PEE dhee-ROHN ah-LAHS-theh
  12. ποινή τις κρυόεσσα βίου δεσμοῖσι πεδήσῃ.pee-NEE tees kree-OH-eh-sah VEE-oo dheh-ZMEE-see peh-DHEE-see.
  13. ἀλλά, θεοί, σοφίης ἐριλαμπέος ἡγεμονῆες,ah-LAH, theh-EE, soh-FEE-ees eh-ree-lahm-BEH-ohs ee-yeh-moh-NEE-ehs,
  14. κέκλυτ’, ἐπειγομένῳ δὲ πρὸς ὑψιφόρητον ἀταρπὸνKEH-kleet’, eh-pee-ghoh-MEH-noh DHEH PROHS eep-see-FOH-ree-tohn ah-tahr-POHN
  15. ὄργια καὶ τελετὰς ἱερῶν ἀναφαίνετε μύθων.OHR-yee-ah KEH teh-leh-TAHS ee-eh-ROHN ah-nah-FEH-neh-teh MEE-thohn.
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 Gods kindle the fire that lifts human souls toward the immortals. Hymns, sacred books, and ineffable rites appear as joined means of purification and revelation. The prayer asks for release from forgetfulness and the bonds of generation, so that the soul may know the divine and the human rightly.

Textual note

Abel IV, printed p. 280. Complete in this edition, 15 verses. The hymn explicitly connects hymns with purificatory rites; this source statement is preserved alongside the collection’s practical distinction between hymn-prayer and the performance of a complete ritual.

Text and attribution

Greek text: Eugenius Abel, Orphica (1885), printed pages 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.