"O eternal Creatrix of Gods and men, who animates forest and stream with soul, and joins seeds of life together throughout the world and you bear the stones of Pyrrha that were enlivened into men by the hand of Prometheus. Hungry men you were first to give nourishment with a variety of foods. You encircle and carry the sea within you. Under your power are the gentleness of domesticated herds and the ferocity of wild beasts and the repose from flight of birds. Firm and immobile, unsetting power of the earth suspended in the vacuum of space. You are the center around which the rapid heavens revolve. All the heavenly bodies, in chariots of fire, wheel about you, O center of the universe, indivisible from the great brotherhood of the Gods. Therefore are you the bountiful who nourishes so many nations, and at the same time so many high cities and so many noble peoples. You provide yourself and all the world as one, from above and below."
(Hymn by Statius in "Thebiad", photo of Magna Mater / Cybele statue, Getty Museum)
