The queen of riches, bounteous in gifts,
Whose kindness quickens, beautifies, and lifts,
Is Health, the goddess, who gives life its charm –
Else all is evil, bitterness, and harm.
Who lacks your favour, soon makes friends with Death,
And flies to him with their last rattling breath:
But whom you bless has strength in all his limbs,
And vigour touching all his hopes and whims.
With shining skin and sparkling eyes he goes;
His active mind like water smoothly flows.
On paths uneven, yet his feet are sure;
He runs and swims, and faints not. To endure
Whatever trial taxes not his frame;
He stands upright and stoops not, nor is lame.
No better wealth in all the world is found:
Whom you forsake to wretchedness is bound
But let it not be such with us, but bless
Our lives, and free our minds from all distress.
Month: February 2022
Eros
Eros, king of tyrants, destroying one,
Who’er you touch is weakened and undone.
Your poison tortures more than deadly force,
And yet you laugh, and never feel remorse;
And those you strike, you torment and destroy,
And their destruction fills your heart with joy.
Who’d rise from Chaos, you bring down again,
Whether they be gods or merely mortal men.
By cheating wiles and lies you trick your foes,
And make them love your softly killing blows.
Devouring fire, and all-consuming lust
That brings men down, like Troy, into the dust.
The king of archers, terrible to see,
You cut men down, even as they try to flee.
Unconquered, conquering all your enemies;
Your fire spreading through them like a disease.
Undoing order, everywhere you spread,
If body live, the soul you leave for dead.
Be merciful and stay your killing hand,
That some might be still left alive to stand.
Luna
To Luna, ruler of the nightime skies,
Whose shining orb the midnight light supplies.
The silver goddess, each attending star
Surrounds you as you drive your shining car.
Now waxing great and shining to the full,
The ocean tides and all earth feel your pull;
And now declining, vanishing from sight,
Once more to rise and set the dark alight.
Two horned, Diana, watching o’er the chase,
In heaven’s dome, you run your nightly race.
Obscurity is banished by your light,
When once you rise and put the dark to flight.
Saturn
Saturn, father of he who fathered all
The gods and men, on whom the righteous call.
Those born in matter, to their height you raise,
Then bring them down; in time to end their days.
From starry Heaven’s union with the Earth,
You, Titan king, were brought to perfect birth.
Divine, infused in all, etherial,
All spirit, wholly immaterial,
Presiding over all the blessed you reign,
And Goodness flourishes in your domain.
Intellect supreme, guiding light of mind,
Most propitious to all of humankind.
Songs of the Gods 