Enjoy this compilation of prayers from ancient Hellas.

Hephaestus

“Hear me lord hephaestus to my supplication be a favouring ally: grant the favors that are yours to grant.”

-Archilochus

“O Hephaestus, lord of Aetna (request here)”

-Euripides, Cyclops

“Wilt thou, O Lemnos! wilt thou, mighty Vulcan!

With thy all-conquering fire (request here)”

-Sophocles, Philoctetes

“Soon, I pray, Hephaestus, memories of whispered rumors of disgrace and loud quarrels of complaint You will no longer hold against the children of Mars; we are also the children of Your sweet wife Venus, spare us, Father.”

-Martial

(This is a prayer to Hephaestus for relief from crisises such as fires or volcanoes.)

Zeus

“Oh Zeus, father Zeus, Yours is the Kingdom of Heaven, and you watch men’s deeds, the crafty and the right, and You are who cares for beasts’ transgression and justice (request here).”

-Archilochus

Multiple gods

“All you gods and goddesses I deservedly give great thanks to you since you have blessed me with this very great happiness and these joys.”

-Poennulus

“Be thou gracious unto me, thou who art king in the tract of the sea, wide-ruling son of Kronos, Girdler of the earth, and be gracious thyself, O Thalassa, and ye gods who in the sounding sea have your abode (Daimones Thalassai); and grant me (request here).”

-Oppian, Halieutica

“Janus, Jupiter, Father Mars, Quirinus, Bellona, Lares, ye Novensiles and Indigetes, deities to whom belongs the power over us and over our foes, and ye, too, Divine Manes, I pray to you, I do you reverence, I crave your grace and favour that you will (request here)”

-Livy

Hera

“O Hera! awful queen, who sharest the couch of Zeus (request here)”

-Euripides, Helen

Nike and Ares

“I invoke Ares and Nike for the success of my expedition and I also invoke Chaerephon for if I do not invoke him he ll come without being invited”

-Apollodorus of Carystus

Apollo

“O lord apollo strike the guilty ones with harm, destroy them as you do destroy but proper us”

-archilochus

“O thou, Creation’s universal light, Phoebus, my father, if to use that name thou givest me leave (request here)”

-Ovid metamorph

“O Phoebus Apollo, who always pitied Troy of its grave hardship, you

who guided the hand of Paris and his Dardanan missile to the body of

Aeacus? son, You who led me to penetrate all the seas that wash upon

mighty shores, and deep within the remote Massylian tribes and fields

that lie against Syrtian sands, until at last we came upon the

fleeting shores of Italy. Let Troy’s ill fortune have followed us thus

far (and no further). You also may justly spare the families of

Pergamus, all you gods and goddesses who stood against Troy and the

greater glory of the Dardanians. And You, most holy Diviner of future

events, I ask only for what fate has allotted me, grant that (request here)”

-virgil

Helios

“This prayer do I make to thee, O father, guardian of my destiny, all-seeing one! Cast now thine eyes upon the land, upon all the sea (request here)”

-Argonautica

“Helios, giver of feason, plantdresser, lord of fruits (request here)”

-Nonnus, Dionysiaca

Demeter

“But now I wish to voice a prayer to the Meter (Mother), the revered goddess to whom, and to great Pan young maids before my door at nightfall often sing their praise.”

-Pindar

Demeter and Persephone

“In the season of garland-wearing I sing

Of Demeter, Wealth’s Olympian mother,

And of you, child of Zeus, Persephone-

Hail to you both, and guard this city well.”

– Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae

Athena



“Oh hail, Athena! Hail thou Zeus-born maid!

Nobly hast thou stood by me. Now will I crown thee

With trophies all of gold for this rich conquest.”

-Ajax, Aeschylus

Artemis and Athena

“First I call on you, daughter of Zeus, immortal Athena, and on your sister, Artemis, guardian of our earth, who sits on her glorious throne above the circle of our market-place, and on far-shooting Apollo: oh shine forth for me (request here)”

-Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus

Nyx

“O Nyx, Mother of Mysteries, and all ye golden Astra who with Luna succeed the fires of day, and thou, divine three-formedHecate, who knowest all my enterprises and dost fortify the arts of magic (request here)”

-Ovid, Metamorphoses 7

Aether

“O you bright sky of heaven (dios aithêr), you swift-winged breezes (takhypteroi pnoiai), you river-waters (pêgai potamôn), and infinite laughter of the waves of sea (pontos), O universal mother Earth (panmêtôr gê), and you, all-seeing orb of the sun (panoptês kyklos hêlios), to you I call! See what I, a god, endure from the gods.’”

-Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound

“O holy mother mine Themis, O you Aether that revolves the common light of all (phaos pantôn) (request here)”

-Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound

“Oh! most mighty king, the boundless Aer (Air), that keepest the earth suspended in space, thou bright Aither and ye venerable goddesses, the Nephelai (request here)”

-Aristophanes, Birds

Pan

“O beloved Pan and all ye other gods of this place, grant to me that I be made beautiful in my soul within, and that all external possessions be in harmony with my inner man. May I consider [279c] the wise man rich; and may I have such wealth as only the self-restrained man can bear or endure.—Do we need anything more, Phaedrus? For me that prayer is enough.”

-Plato, Phaedrus

Underworld gods

“O house of Haides and Persephone! O Hermes of the Underworld and holy Ara (Curse) and divine Erinnyes (Furies)! You who watch over those dying unjustly and those being robbed of a marriage bed (request here)”

-Suidas s.v. Persephone