From those wonderful Athena groupies at Bryn Mawr… here’s a recording of the hymn, and the lyrics (with translation, reproduced below).
“Pallas Athena, goddess of learning and strength,
We come to you to worship you, dread goddess.
Bless us we pray; give us wisdom.
Be with us always, Blessed goddess, hear!
Sanctify our lanterns now, to shine forever clearly,
Lighting the way, making bright the dark.“
Now that’s a great hymn! Apparently they also have a tradition of leaving offerings at Her statue - may She bless and reward them.
And on a semi-related note, it appears that somebody has recently decided to e-publish a reprint edition of To the Gods of Hellas: Lyrics of the Greek Games at Barnard College (Helen Erskine, editor - originally published in the 1920s). Google it or check with your favorite online book seller - it’s well worth having!
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Pingback on Sep 30th, 2007 at 9:07 am
[...] prayers and hymns. For example, the Executive Pagan brought my attention to a short, beautiful Hymn to Athena that combines worship with a request for blessing and wisdom. For a more ancient source of Greek [...]
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August 3, 2007 at 9:34 am
Fantastic! I was just sitting through a commercial the other night for some Christian music and wishing we had some good Pagan hymns. All those from the old days are long gone, thanks to the Church and it’s time we write some new ones to our Gods and sing them proudly. Thanks for sharing. I sat back and closed my eyes and tried to picture what it must have been like, religious processions walking down the avenues of the ancient cities, singing hymns and celebrating joyously as they honored the Gods of us all.
August 3, 2007 at 10:48 am
The book that I mentioned? I’ve used some of those hymns in worship, set to existing tunes (medieval, mostly)… it is a nice thing. And there are a couple of new hymns that I’ve come across as well that I just love - particularly John Schrag’s 4-part choral setting of Sabina Becker’s chant “Kore Evohe” (recorded by SheWho in the book/CD set “Winter Solstice Singing Ritual”).
August 7, 2007 at 8:52 pm
My lantern is on my altar. Lantern Night is amazing. The frosh all wear black robes and the lights on campus are out. It’s very solemn and beautiful and holy (and then silly afterwards, because it is college, after all.)
The Lantern Night song is beautiful, but our main school song is the Sophias… “Sophias philai paroumen…” here: http://www.blight.com/~scarlett/traditions/songbook/sophias.html
The school cheer is:
“Anassa kata, kalo kale! Ia, ia, ia Nike!” (Descend, Queen; come, beautiful one. Hail hail, hail Victory!) We yell that at sports events. Mawrters are the awesomest nerds ever. I (heart) my alma mater.
The tradition of leaving offerings to Athena is alive and well. I used to give her chocolate before exams. Others are more extravagant or ridiculous.
Whenever I talk about my school days, my husband accuses me of having gone to Hogwarts. I would still be there if I could afford to be an eternal student. Thanks for giving me a few moments of reflexive nostalgia.
August 7, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Hey Nettle,
> thanks
Glad to! You couldn’t point me to a recording of “Sophias”, by any chance? I’d love to hear it… that recording of “Pallas Athena” is on heavy rotation in my car, and I’d love to hear more!
August 7, 2007 at 10:44 pm
I don’t know of any recordings online of the Sophias - I could sing it to you, but that’s not anything you would want to play in your car.
I did find this lovely video of a BMC Greek professor reciting the Iliad in the middle of Erdman dining hall:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFZRs0zInb8
August 8, 2007 at 5:23 am
That is most excellent! Thanks for sharing.
October 3, 2007 at 3:14 pm
I finally did find a recording of “Sophias”, on the BMC website: http://www.brynmawr.edu/activities/docs/Sophias.mp3
It’s cool to hear it, but I have to admit it’s not as catchy as the Lantern Night song…