Translated by Catherine Proppe June 7, 2016
85. Ὕπνου, θυμίαμα μετὰ μήκωνος.
To Hypnos
Divine medium: meta meekonos (opium poppy)
Ὕπνε, ἄναξ μακάρων πάντων θνητῶν τ’ ἀνθρώπων
Hypnos[1], blessed ruler of all mortal humanity
καὶ πάντων ζώιων, ὁπόσα τρέφει εὐρεῖα χθών·
And all living beings, as many as are fostered on the wide earth,
πάντων γὰρ κρατέεις μοῦνος καὶ πᾶσι προσέρχηι
Over all you rule alone and all enter into your
σώματα δεσμεύων ἐν ἀχαλκεύτοισι πέδηισι,
Body-binding chains of non-metallic shackles.
λυσιμέριμνε, κόπων ἡδεῖαν ἔχων ἀνάπαυσιν
You release worries and fatigue, sweet foundation, giving rise to cessation
καὶ πάσης λύπης ἱερὸν παραμύθιον ἔρδων·
Of every pain, providing blessed relief,
καὶ θανάτου μελέτην ἐπάγεις ψυχὰς διασώζων·
And to attentive mortals bringing the Soul’s[2] preservation,
αὐτοκασίγνητος γὰρ ἔφυς Λήθης Θανάτου τε.
Born of the mother[3] who gave birth to Lethe[4] and Death[5].
ἀλλά, μάκαρ, λίτομαί σε κεκραμένον ἡδὺν ἱκάνειν
But, blessed one, with this simple prayer sweetly mixed, come,
σώζοντ’ εὐμενέως μύστας θείοισιν ἐπ’ ἔργοις.
Keep us safe from death, kindly power, upon mystai’s sacred works.
[1] Hypnos is the immortal God of sleep.
[2] Psyche is the immortal Goddess of the soul.
[3] The Goddess Night is the mother of Sleep, Forgetting, and Death.
[4] Lethe is the river of forgetting in the afterlife.
[5] Thanatos is the immortal God of death.
85. Ὕπνου, θυμίαμα μετὰ μήκωνος.
To Hypnos
Divine medium: meta meekonos (opium poppy)
Ὕπνε, ἄναξ μακάρων πάντων θνητῶν τ’ ἀνθρώπων
Hypnos[1], blessed ruler of all mortal humanity
καὶ πάντων ζώιων, ὁπόσα τρέφει εὐρεῖα χθών·
And all living beings, as many as are fostered on the wide earth,
πάντων γὰρ κρατέεις μοῦνος καὶ πᾶσι προσέρχηι
Over all you rule alone and all enter into your
σώματα δεσμεύων ἐν ἀχαλκεύτοισι πέδηισι,
Body-binding chains of non-metallic shackles.
λυσιμέριμνε, κόπων ἡδεῖαν ἔχων ἀνάπαυσιν
You release worries and fatigue, sweet foundation, giving rise to cessation
καὶ πάσης λύπης ἱερὸν παραμύθιον ἔρδων·
Of every pain, providing blessed relief,
καὶ θανάτου μελέτην ἐπάγεις ψυχὰς διασώζων·
And to attentive mortals bringing the Soul’s[2] preservation,
αὐτοκασίγνητος γὰρ ἔφυς Λήθης Θανάτου τε.
Born of the mother[3] who gave birth to Lethe[4] and Death[5].
ἀλλά, μάκαρ, λίτομαί σε κεκραμένον ἡδὺν ἱκάνειν
But, blessed one, with this simple prayer sweetly mixed, come,
σώζοντ’ εὐμενέως μύστας θείοισιν ἐπ’ ἔργοις.
Keep us safe from death, kindly power, upon mystai’s sacred works.
[1] Hypnos is the immortal God of sleep.
[2] Psyche is the immortal Goddess of the soul.
[3] The Goddess Night is the mother of Sleep, Forgetting, and Death.
[4] Lethe is the river of forgetting in the afterlife.
[5] Thanatos is the immortal God of death.
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