Orphic Hymn 29

To Proserpine

Daughter of Jove, Persephone divine, Come, blessed queen, and to these rites incline: Only-begotten, Pluto’s honour’d wife, O venerable Goddess, source of life: ‘Tis thine in earth’s profundities to dwell, Fast by the wide and dismal gates of hell. Jove’s holy offspring, of a beauteous mien, Avenging Goddess, subterranean queen. The Furies’ source, fair-hair’d, whose frame proceeds From Jove’s ineffable and secret seeds. Mother of Bacchus, sonorous, divine, And many-form’d, the parent of the vine. Associate of the Seasons, essence bright, All-ruling virgin, bearing heav’nly light. With fruits abounding, of a bounteous mind, Horn’d, and alone desir’d by those of mortal kind. O vernal queen, whom grassy plains delight, Sweet to the smell, and pleasing to the sight: Whose holy form in budding fruits we view, Earth’s vig’rous offspring of a various hue: Espous’d in autumn, life and death alone To wretched mortals from thy pow’r is known: For thine the task, according to thy will, Life to produce, and all that lives to kill. Hear, blessed Goddess, send a rich increase Of various fruits from earth, with lovely Peace: Send Health with gentle hand, and crown my life With blest abundance, free from noisy strife; Last in extreme old age the prey of Death, Dismiss me willing to the realms beneath, To thy fair palace and the blissful plains Where happy spirits dwell, and Pluto reigns.