Engraving by Marcel Nicaud, detail from the ‘Archigalle Pectoral’ as seen in the ‘De l’Architecture Naturelle’ or commonly known as the ‘Petrus Talemarianus’.

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Today’s sharing from the Blue House of HYGEIA is a quote from Emperor Julian’s ORATION TO THE MOTHER OF THE GODS: ‘Hymn to the Mighty Goddess’, translated by Thomas Taylor.

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‘A mother of gods and men! O assistant and partner in the throne of mighty Jupiter! O fountain of the intellectual gods!

O thou whose nature concurs with the uncontaminated essences of intelligibles, and who, receiving a common cause from all intelligibles, dost impart it to intellectual natures!

Vivific goddess, Counsel and Providence, and the fabricator of our souls! O thou who didst love the mighty Bacchus, who didst preserve the castrated Attis, and when he had fallen into the cavern of earth, didst again lead him upwards to his pristine abode!

O thou who art the leader of every good to the intellectual gods, with which thou dost likewise fill this sensible world, and who dost impart to us all possible good in everything belonging to our nature!

Graciously bestow upon all men felicity, the summit of which is the knowledge of the gods: but especially grant to the Roman people in common, that they may wipe away the stains of their impiety; and that they may be blessed with prosperous fortune, which, in conjunction with them, may govern the empire for many thousands of years. But with respect to myself, may the fruit of my cultivation of thy divinity be the possession of truth in dogmata concerning the gods, perfection in Theurgy, in all the actions which I shall undertake, both political and military, virtue, in conjunction with good fortune; and lastly a departure from the present life without pain, and attended with glory, together with good hope of a progression to thy divinity.’