ritual · Greek

Prayer to Selene

Hear us, O' Goddess, light-bearing Queen, divine Selene; bull-horned Mene, night-roaming, airborne, nocturnal, torch-bearing, dark maiden; Mene, who waxes and wanes, masculine and feminine; illuminating, horse-loving, mother of time; fruit-bearing, amber, atmospheric, all-shining, each night; You, the all-seeing, vigilant, filled with beautiful stars, joyful in the silence and the fortunate night; bright, joy-bringing, full-cycled, jewel of the night; O' star-queen, long-veiled, variable, all-wise maid, approach with bliss and delight; rich with stars and shining light three-fold; protect your new suppliants, O' Maid.

Commentarius · Commentary

The `modern` label applies to the ceremony, not to the words. As on the neighbouring Hekate card (greek-hekate-orphic-001), what we have is an Orphic hymn rendered almost entire — the ninth, to Selene: bull-horned Mene, night-wandering, torch-bearing, waxing and waning, male and female, mother of time, full of beautiful stars.

Ἀρσενόθηλυ — male-and-female. The moon is the only visible body that changes shape, and therefore the only one of which it can be said that it is both. The property is derived from observation, not from myth.

"Mother of time" — mētēr chronou, and this is no metaphor: the month was counted by her, and in Greek the words for month and moon share a root (mēn, mēnē). Time is her child in the literal sense.

The occasion here, unlike Hekate's, is correctly assigned. The full moon did not belong to Hekate — her day was the dark end of the month; whereas Selene at the full moon is Selene entire. One rite in the same book has joined a hymn rightly placed to a hymn placed wrongly.

Fons · Source

AuthorAnonymous / Orphic tradition

WorkHellenic Polytheism: Household Worship

SectionFull Moon Ceremony — Hymn to Selene

Occasionfull moon ceremony

Classificatio · Taxonomy

CultureGreek

Formritual

DeitiesSelene

FunctionsInvocation · Petition · Praise

SpherePersonal