Enjoy this set of ancient liturgical invocations, perfect for diversifying your practice.

Peitho

Peitho can be interpreted as the minor goddess of persuasion, seduction or as an epithet of Aphrodite.

“Queenly Season of Youth, herald of the divine embraces of Aphrodite,

you who rest in the eyes of young girls and boys, and carry one man in

the gentle arms of compulsion, but handle another man differently.”

-Pindar

Eirene

“Ring your coiffured hair with Actium’s laurels, Eirene; be present,

and gentle the whole world. Let there be no enemies, no cause for

triumph; you’ll give our leaders more glory than war. Let the soldier

bear arms only to smother arms, and fierce trumpets blast nothing but

pomp.”

-Ovid

Kronus

“Before the mighty Gods that rule the world

from high Olympus’ snowy peak were born,

Saturnus was the king of all the Gods

and Ops, His sister, was His wife and queen.

But when the time had come to yield His throne

in favor of a younger God, His son,

then Father Saturn would not step aside.

A fight ensued between the old and new,

Till Jove had thrown Saturnus from the sky.

He tumbled down to Earth, and with His wife

He made a ship and sailed to this, our land.

He taught the people many useful arts,

to save the seeds and sow them in the ground,

so we need never have to search for food.

He showed us how to breed our animals

so we might always have their meat and fur,

so they would help to plow the fertile Earth.

Saturnus first taught folk to strike bright coins

from shining silver, glittering gold and bronze.

He showed how money might be put away,

and saved, and put to use another day.

In these and other ways Saturnus made

our lives much easier and free.

His happy reign was called the Golden Age,

when there was food enough for everyone,

and people shared the bounty that they had,

and no one ever stole or fought or lied.

But when the end had come to Saturn’s reign,

He wisely chose to set aside His crown.

He sailed away beyond the Northern Wind,

to Hyperborea, where He now sleeps,

upon a hidden island at the Pole,

where He awaits another Golden Age.”

-Saturnalia by Macrobius

Plutus

This deity is the minor Olympian god of wealth and associated with his

mother Demeter. Plutus is more associated with an abundance of agricultural products then money: this hymn can help you complete a liturgy for eleusinian worship.

“Plutus ; justly to your gifts and you,

Mankind attribute praise and honor due.

With your assistance, we securely face

Defeat and disappointment and disgrace.

Thus to reward the virtuous, and to slight

Wicked and dirty knaves, is surely right !

For with the world at large, no merit tells,

But Plutus and his bounty, — nothing else!

No ! not the sense of Rhadamanthus old,

Nor all the shrewd devices manifold,

Which Sisyphus, the keen Corinthian knew ;

That wily chief, that, if old tales are true,

Made a most strange escape, so poets tell,

By dint of rhetoric, he returned from Hell !

For she (that kind oblivion can dispense ;

But takes away the judgment and the sense)

The Goddess Proserpine, by strong persuasion,

Consented to connive at his evasion:

A thing unheard of, and unknown before ;

That, having passed the dark infernal door,

And visited those dreary realms below

From that disastrous prison-house of woe,

A man by policy should work his way;

Emerging into light and upper day!

Sisyphus gained a point which none beside,

(Of all that ever liv’d or ever died)

Could have atchiev’d — Yet Sisyphus would fail;

Nor would Ulysses with his arts prevail ;

Nor aged Nestor with his eloquence —

No merit would avail you ; no pretence ;

Though you possessed the vigour and the speed

Of the swift Harpies, or the winged breed

Of Boreas, in the proud Olympic game

A conqueror ! your native place and name

Recorded and announced with loud acclaim

Still, would you find the common saying hold,

Fame is a jest; favor is bought and sold;

No power on earth is like the power of gold”

-Theognis

Aphrodite

“I call upon You, the Mother and Mistress of Nymphs

ILAOCH OBRIE’LOUCH TLOR

Come in Holy Light and give Answer, showing Your Lovely Shape!

I call upon thee ILAOUCH who has begotten Himeros, the Lovely Horai

and You Graces;

I also call upon the Zeus-sprung Physis of All Things,

Two-formed, indivisible, straight, foam-beautiful Aphrodite.

Reveal to me Your Lovely Light and Your Lovely Face, O Mistress ILAOUCH.

I conjure You, Giver of Fire, by ELGINAL, and by the Great Names:

OBRIE’TYCH KERDYNOUCHILE’PSIN

NIOU NAUNIN IOUTHOU THRIGX TATIOUTH GERTIATH

GERGERIS GERGERIE’THEITHI.

I also ask You by the All Wonderful Names:

OISIA EI EI AO’E’Y IO’IAIAIO SO’THOU BERBROI AKTEROBORE GERIE’IE’OYA;

Bring Light and Your Lovely Face and the knowledge of Your Divine Self,

You shining with Fire, bearing Fire all around, stirring the Land from afar –

IO’ IO’ PHTHAIE’ THOUTHOUI PHAEPHI –

Do it!

Hail, Very Glorious Goddess, ILARA OUCH!”

-Greek Magical Papyri

(Source: The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including the

Demotic Spells, Volume 1

edited by Hans Dieter Betz)