"Hekate Einodia, Trioditis, lovely dame,
of earthly, watery, and celestial frame,
sepulchral, in a saffron veil arrayed,
pleased with dark ghosts that wander through the shade;
Perseis, solitary goddess, hail!
The world’s key-bearer, ...
never doomed to fail;
in stags rejoicing, huntress, nightly seen,
and drawn by bulls, unconquerable queen;
Leader, nymphe, nurse, on mountains wandering,
hear the suppliants who with holy rites thy power revere,
and to the herdsman with a favouring mind draw near."
of earthly, watery, and celestial frame,
sepulchral, in a saffron veil arrayed,
pleased with dark ghosts that wander through the shade;
Perseis, solitary goddess, hail!
The world’s key-bearer, ...
never doomed to fail;
in stags rejoicing, huntress, nightly seen,
and drawn by bulls, unconquerable queen;
Leader, nymphe, nurse, on mountains wandering,
hear the suppliants who with holy rites thy power revere,
and to the herdsman with a favouring mind draw near."
(Orphic Hymn 1 to Hekate; Hekate sculpture from Athens, National Archaelogical Museum)
