Translated by Catherine Proppe, December 9, 2016
4. Οὐρανοῦ, θυμίαμα λίβανον.
To Ouranos, God of the Heavens
Divine medium: libanon (frankincense)
Οὐρανὲ παγγενέτωρ, κόσμου μέρος αἰὲν ἀτειρές,
Ouranos, Father of all, apportioned the cosmos for eternal rule,
πρεσβυγένεθλ', ἀρχὴ πάντων πάντων τε τελευτή,
Of the eldest-generation, beginning all and all-completing,
κόσμε πατήρ, σφαιρηδὸν ἑλισσόμενος περὶ γαῖαν,
Father of the cosmos, spherical whirling force surrounding Gaia,
οἶκε θεῶν μακάρων, ῥόμβου δίνῃσιν ὁδεύων,
Housed in a divinely blessed whirling dynamic voyage,
οὐράνιος χθόνιός τε φύλαξ πάντων περιβληθείς,
Heavenly earthly guardian, all-encompassing orbit,
ἐν στέρνοισιν ἔχων φύσεως ἄτλητον ἀνάγκην,
Firmly holding Phusis’ with steadfast Necessity.
κυανόχρως, ἀδάμαστε, παναίολε, αἰολόμορφε,
Cyan-fortress, unconquerable, always eternally varying, of eternally various form,
πανδερκές, Κρονότεκνε, μάκαρ, πανυπέρτατε δαῖμον,
All-seeing creator of Kronos, blessed deity underlying all
κλῦθ' ἐπάγων ζωὴν ὁσίαν μύστηι νεοφάντηι.
I call, bring forth eternal life’s divine mysterious new light.
NOTES
Ouranos (Οὐρανός) is the immortal God of the heavens which house the sun, moon, stars, and planets. He was born of Gaia, the immortal Goddess of generative earth, at the beginning of creation. He has no father.[1]
Ouranos and Gaia gave birth to the immortal Titans. Ouranos imprisoned the Titans beneath the earth in Tartaros. His son, Kronos, God of time, castrated Ouranos and freed the Titans. This castration resulted in the birth of deities including the Erinyes (Ἐρινύων) (Goddesses of retribution), the Gigantes (Γιγάντες) (volcanic deities), and Aphrodite (Goddess of sexual attraction).[2]
The six Titans consist of Kronos, the God of time, Oceanos, God of the ocean, and the four Gods of the four cardinal directions (north, south, east, west). Note that Time is reckoned by the position of the stars, the shape of the moon, and the movement of the sun.
The six Titanides consist of deities who presided over specific oracular/prophetic locations in the ancient world. They are earth Goddesses who inspire reading and interpreting the signs, such as the movement and postion of constellations and planets and other natural phenomena.
Phusis is the immortal Goddess of physics, of nature.
Ananke is the immortal Goddess of necessity, of what must be, the unavoidable.
Cyan is lapis lazuli, a dark-blue gemstone studded with glittering crystal so that it resembles a starry sky.
Fritz Graf and Sarah Iles Johnson in Ritual Texts for the Afterlife published an inscription from a gold tablet buried with a woman circa 400 BCE which reads, in part, “I am a child of Earth and starry Sky:”
“When you are about to die
down to the well-built house of Hades,
There is a spring at the right side,
And standing by it a white cypress.
Descending to it, the souls of the dead refresh themselves.
Do not even go near this spring!
Ahead you will find from the Lake of Memory,
Cold water pouring forth; there are guards before it.
They will ask you, with astute wisdom,
What you are seeking in the darkness of murky Hades.
Say, ‘I am a child of Earth and starry Sky,
I am parched with thirst and am dying;
But quickly grant me
Cold water from the Lake of Memory to drink.’
And they will announce you to the Chthonian King,
And they will grant you to drink from the Lake of Memory.
And you, too, having drunk, will go along the sacred road on which other
Glorious initiates and bacchoi travel.”
From the cist-grave of a woman, around 400 BCE, grave tablet, Museo Archeologico di Vibo. The rectangular gold tablet, folded several times, was found lying on the upper chest of the skeleton and was perhaps attached to the neck by a tiny string.[3]
[1] Hesiod, Theogony 126.
[2] (Hesiod, Theogony 154-193.
[3] Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets, by Fritz Graf and Sarah Iles Johnson, Routledge, New York, 2007.
4. Οὐρανοῦ, θυμίαμα λίβανον.
To Ouranos, God of the Heavens
Divine medium: libanon (frankincense)
Οὐρανὲ παγγενέτωρ, κόσμου μέρος αἰὲν ἀτειρές,
Ouranos, Father of all, apportioned the cosmos for eternal rule,
πρεσβυγένεθλ', ἀρχὴ πάντων πάντων τε τελευτή,
Of the eldest-generation, beginning all and all-completing,
κόσμε πατήρ, σφαιρηδὸν ἑλισσόμενος περὶ γαῖαν,
Father of the cosmos, spherical whirling force surrounding Gaia,
οἶκε θεῶν μακάρων, ῥόμβου δίνῃσιν ὁδεύων,
Housed in a divinely blessed whirling dynamic voyage,
οὐράνιος χθόνιός τε φύλαξ πάντων περιβληθείς,
Heavenly earthly guardian, all-encompassing orbit,
ἐν στέρνοισιν ἔχων φύσεως ἄτλητον ἀνάγκην,
Firmly holding Phusis’ with steadfast Necessity.
κυανόχρως, ἀδάμαστε, παναίολε, αἰολόμορφε,
Cyan-fortress, unconquerable, always eternally varying, of eternally various form,
πανδερκές, Κρονότεκνε, μάκαρ, πανυπέρτατε δαῖμον,
All-seeing creator of Kronos, blessed deity underlying all
κλῦθ' ἐπάγων ζωὴν ὁσίαν μύστηι νεοφάντηι.
I call, bring forth eternal life’s divine mysterious new light.
NOTES
Ouranos (Οὐρανός) is the immortal God of the heavens which house the sun, moon, stars, and planets. He was born of Gaia, the immortal Goddess of generative earth, at the beginning of creation. He has no father.[1]
Ouranos and Gaia gave birth to the immortal Titans. Ouranos imprisoned the Titans beneath the earth in Tartaros. His son, Kronos, God of time, castrated Ouranos and freed the Titans. This castration resulted in the birth of deities including the Erinyes (Ἐρινύων) (Goddesses of retribution), the Gigantes (Γιγάντες) (volcanic deities), and Aphrodite (Goddess of sexual attraction).[2]
The six Titans consist of Kronos, the God of time, Oceanos, God of the ocean, and the four Gods of the four cardinal directions (north, south, east, west). Note that Time is reckoned by the position of the stars, the shape of the moon, and the movement of the sun.
The six Titanides consist of deities who presided over specific oracular/prophetic locations in the ancient world. They are earth Goddesses who inspire reading and interpreting the signs, such as the movement and postion of constellations and planets and other natural phenomena.
Phusis is the immortal Goddess of physics, of nature.
Ananke is the immortal Goddess of necessity, of what must be, the unavoidable.
Cyan is lapis lazuli, a dark-blue gemstone studded with glittering crystal so that it resembles a starry sky.
Fritz Graf and Sarah Iles Johnson in Ritual Texts for the Afterlife published an inscription from a gold tablet buried with a woman circa 400 BCE which reads, in part, “I am a child of Earth and starry Sky:”
“When you are about to die
down to the well-built house of Hades,
There is a spring at the right side,
And standing by it a white cypress.
Descending to it, the souls of the dead refresh themselves.
Do not even go near this spring!
Ahead you will find from the Lake of Memory,
Cold water pouring forth; there are guards before it.
They will ask you, with astute wisdom,
What you are seeking in the darkness of murky Hades.
Say, ‘I am a child of Earth and starry Sky,
I am parched with thirst and am dying;
But quickly grant me
Cold water from the Lake of Memory to drink.’
And they will announce you to the Chthonian King,
And they will grant you to drink from the Lake of Memory.
And you, too, having drunk, will go along the sacred road on which other
Glorious initiates and bacchoi travel.”
From the cist-grave of a woman, around 400 BCE, grave tablet, Museo Archeologico di Vibo. The rectangular gold tablet, folded several times, was found lying on the upper chest of the skeleton and was perhaps attached to the neck by a tiny string.[3]
[1] Hesiod, Theogony 126.
[2] (Hesiod, Theogony 154-193.
[3] Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets, by Fritz Graf and Sarah Iles Johnson, Routledge, New York, 2007.
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