Artist Unknown

Hymn to Pluto

By Orpheus

Pluto, magnanimous, whose realms profound

Are fixed beneath the firm and solid ground,

In the Tartarian plains remote from sight,

And wrapt forever in the depths of night;

Terestrial Jove, thy sacred ear incline,

And, pleased, accept thy mystic's hymn divine.

Earth's keys to thee, illustrious king belong,

Its secret gates unlocking, deep and strong.

'Tis thine, abundant annual fruits to bear,

For needy mortals are thy constant care.

To thee, great king, Avernus is assigned,

The seat of Gods, and basis of mankind.

Thy throne is fixed in Hades' dismal plains,

Distant, unknown to rest, where darkness reigns;

Where, destitute of breath, pale spectres dwell,

In endless, dire, inexorable hell;

and in dread Acheron, Whose depths obscure,

Earth's stable roots eternally secure.

O mighty daemon, whose decisions dread,

The future fate determines of the dead,

With captive Proserpine, thro' grassy plains,

Drawn in a four yoked car with loosened reigns,

Rapt over the deep, impelled by love, you flew

"Till Eleusina's city rose to view;

There, in a wondrous cave obscure and deep,

The sacred maid secure from search you keep,

The cave of Attis, whose wide gates display

an entrance to the kingdoms void of day.

Of unapparent works, thou art alone

The dispensator, visible and known.

O power all-ruling, holy, honored light,

Thee sacred poets and their hyumns delight;

Propitious to thy mystic's works incline,

Rejoicing come, for holy rites are thine.