Astronomicon

Scarcely 13 The number 13 likely refers to the line number in the original manuscript or source text. set free, the song sends words into their own patterns,
Which first it was allowed fully The scribal notation 'B' is an abbreviation for 'bene' (well or fully), indicating the completion of the thought. for the lands to know deeply—
The gifts of the celestials. For who, while the gods were hiding the truth,
Could have stolen by theft the secret of the world by which all things are governed?
Who would have attempted so much within a human heart
That, with the gods unwilling, he would desire to seem a god himself?
You, Mercury original: "cyllenie" (the Cyllenian), a common title for Mercury, who was born on Mount Cyllene and credited with inventing the lyre and the sciences., are the leader and author of so great a sacred mystery;
Through you, the inner heaven and the stars are now known,
Opening the lofty ways under one single vault,
And the stars obeying their own limits through the void,
And the names and courses of the signs, fully revealing their powers,
So that the face of the world might be greater and more venerable.
For [this was] not merely hope and The shorthand '&' is the Latin 'et' (and). but the very power of things,
That the nations might feel the presence of God, how great He was;
And Nature gave the strength and revealed herself,
Having first deigned fully to move royal minds
Which touch the summits of things closest to heaven.
These kings tamed wild nations under the rising sun itself,
Those lands which the Euphrates carries and which the Nile floods,
Where the sky turns back and flies over the dark cities A reference to the peoples of the south and east, such as the Egyptians and Ethiopians, whose skin was said to be darkened by the sun's proximity..
And then they cultivated temples with sacred rites through every The marker '+' often indicates a contraction or a specific reading, here likely referring to 'per omne' (through all). age,
And chosen priests, for the sake of public prayers,
Joined themselves to the god by their office; in these men, the very presence
Of the powerful divinity original: "numinis," here transcribed with a slight error as "huminis." kindled a pure mind,
And the god himself raised them toward the divine, and stood revealed to his servants.