(And now what is left for me to say? Especially since it was granted me to compose this hymn at a breath, in the short space of one night, without having read anything on the subject beforehand, or thought it over. Nay, I had not even planned to speak thereof until the moment that I asked for these writing‐tablets. May the goddess bear witness to the truth of my words! Nevertheless, as I said before, does there not still remain for me to celebrate the goddess in her union with Athene and Dionysus? For the sacred law established their festivals at the very time of her sacred rites. And I recognise the kinship of Athene and the Mother of the Gods through the similarity of the forethought that inheres in the substance of both goddesses. And I discern also the divided creative function of Dionysus, which great Dionysus received from the single and abiding principle of life that is in mighty Zeus. For from Zeus he proceeded, and he bestows that life on all things visible, controlling and governing the creation of the whole divisible world. Together with these gods we ought to celebrate Hermes Epaphroditus.(892) For so this god is entitled by the initiated who say that he kindles the torches for wise Attis. And who has a soul so dense as not to understand that through Hermes and Aphrodite are invoked all generated things everywhere, since they everywhere and throughout have a purpose which is peculiarly appropriate to the Logos?(893) But is not this Logos Attis, who not long ago was out of his senses, but now through his castration is called wise? Yes, he was out of his senses because he preferred matter and presides over generation, but he is wise because he adorned and transformed this refuse, our earth, with such beauty as no human art or cunning could imitate. But how shall I conclude my discourse? Surely with this hymn to the Great Goddess.) Ὦ θεῶν καὶ ἀνθρώπων μῆτερ, ὦ τοῦ μεγάλου σύνθωκε καὶ σύνθρονε Διός, ὦ πηγὴ τῶν νοερῶν θεῶν, ὦ τῶν νοητῶν ταῖς ἀχράντοις οὐσίαις συνδραμοῦσα καὶ τὴν κοινὴν ἐκ πάντων αἰτίαν παραδεξαμένη [180] καὶ τοῖς νοεροῖς ἐνδιδοῦσα ζωογόνε θεὰ καὶ μῆτις καὶ πρόνοια καὶ τῶν ἡμετέρων ψυχῶν δημιουργέ, ὦ τὸν μέγαν Διόνυσον ἀγαπῶσα καὶ τὸν Ἄττιν ἐκτεθέντα περισωσαμένη καὶ πάλιν αὐτὸν εἰς τὸ γῆς ἄντρον καταδυόμενον ἐπανάγουσα, ὦ πάντων μὲν ἀγαθῶν τοῖς νοεροῖς ἡγουμένη θεοῖς, πάντων δὲ ἀποπληροῦσα τὸν αἰσθητὸν κόσμον, πάντα δὲ ἡμῖν ἐν πᾶσιν ἀγαθὰ χαρισαμένη, δίδου πᾶσι [B] μὲν ἀνθρώποις εὐδαιμονίαν, ἧς τὸ κεφάλαιον ἡ τῶν θεῶν γνῶσίς ἐστι, κοινῇ δὲ τῷ Ῥωμαίων δήμῳ, μάλιστα μὲν ἀποτρίψασθαι τῆς ἀθεότητος τὴν κηλίδα, πρὸς δὲ καὶ τὴν τύχην εὐμενῆ συνδιακυβερνῶσαν αὐτῷ τὰ τῆς ἀρχῆς πολλὰς χιλιάδας ἐτῶν, ἐμοὶ δὲ καρπὸν γενέσθαι τῆς περὶ σὲ θεραπείας ἀλήθειαν ἐν τοῖς περὶ θεῶν δόγμασιν, ἐν θεουργίᾳ τελειότητα, πάντων ἔργων, οἷς προσερχόμεθα περὶ τὰς πολιτικὰς [C] καὶ στρατιωτικὰς πράξεις,(894) ἀρετὴν μετὰ τῆς ἀγαθῆς τύχης καὶ τὸ τοῦ βίου πέρας ἄλυπον τε καὶ εὐδόκιμον μετὰ τῆς ἀγαθῆς ἐλπίδος τῆς ἐπὶ τῇ παρ᾽ ὑμᾶς πορείᾳ.