The Hymns of Orpheus · 7 of 91

To Night.

II. TO NIGHT. The FUMIGATION with TORCHES. NIGHT, parent goddess, source of sweet repose,

From whom at first both Gods and men arose,

Hear, blessed Venus, deck’d with starry light, 3

In sleep’s deep silence dwelling Ebon night!

Dreams and soft ease attend thy dusky train, 5

Pleas’d with the length’ned gloom and feastful strain.

Dissolving anxious care, the friend of Mirth,

With darkling coursers riding round the earth.

Goddess of phantoms and of shadowy play,

Whose drowsy pow’r divides the nat’ral day: 10

By Fate’s decree you constant send the light To deepest hell, remote from mortal sight

For dire Necessity which nought withstands,

Invests the world with adamantine bands.

Be present, Goddess, to thy suppliant’s pray’r, 15

Desir’d by all, whom all alike revere,

Blessed, benevolent, with friendly aid

Dispell the fears of Twilight’s dreadful shade.

Footnotes 115:3 II. Ver. 3.] See the reason why Night is called Venus, in the notes to hymn, v. to Protogonus.