Daughter of Jove, Persephone divine, Come, blessed queen, and to these rites incline; Only-begotten, Pluto's honoured wife, O venerable goddess, source of life: 'Tis thine in earth's profoundities to dwell, Fast by the wide and dismal gates of hell. Jove's holy offering, of a beauteous mien, Avenging goddess, subterranean queen. The Furies' source, fair-hair'd, whose frame proceeds From Jove's ineffable and secret seeds. Mother of Bacchus, sonorous, divine, And many form'd, the parent of the vine. Associate of the Seasons, essence bright, All-ruling virgin, bearing heav'nly light. With fruits abounding, of a bounteous mind, Horn'd, and alone desir'd by those of mortal kind. O vernal queen, whom grassy plains delight, Sweet to the smell, and pleasing to the sight: Whose holy forms in budding fruits we view, Earth's vig'rous offspring of a various hue: Espous'd in autumn, life and death alone To wretched mortals from thy pow'r is known: For thine the task, according to thy will, Life to produce, and all that lives to kill. Hear, blessed Goddess, send a rich increase Of various fruits from earth, with lovely Peace; Send Health with gentle hand, and crown my life With blest abundance, free from noisy strife; Last in extreme old age the prey of death, Dismiss me willing to the realms beneath, To thy fair palace and the blissful plains Where happy spirits dwell, and Pluto reigns. NINTH DAY.--The ninth day was known as the Day of Earthen Vessels, because it was the custom on that day to fill two jugs with wine. One was placed towards the East and the other towards the West, and after the repetition of certain mystical formulæ both were overthrown, the wine being spilt upon the ground as a libation. The first of these formulæ was directed towards the sky as a prayer for rain, and the second to the earth as a prayer for fertility. The words used by the hierophant to denote the termination of the celebration of the Mysteries-_Conx Om Pax_: "Watch and do no evil"--are said to have been Egyptian, and were the same as those used at the conclusion of the Mysteries of Isis. This fact is sometimes used as an argument in favour of the Egyptian origin of the Eleusinian Mysteries. TENTH DAY.--On the tenth day the majority of the people returned to their homes, with the exception of every third and fifth year, when they remained behind for the Mystery Plays and Sports, which lasted from two to three days.