To The Sun

VII.

TO THE SUN.

The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE and MANNA.

HEAR golden Titan, whose eternal eye
With broad survey, illumines all the sky.
Self-born, unwearied in diffusing light,
And to all eyes the mirrour of delight:
Lord of the seasons, with thy fiery car 5
And leaping coursers, beaming light from far:
With thy right hand the source of morning light,  ⁷
And with thy left the father of the night.
Agile and vig'rous, venerable Sun,
Fiery and bright around the heav'ns you run. 10
Foe to the wicked, but the good man's guide,
O'er all his steps propitious you preside:
With various founding, golden lyre, 'tis mine
To fill the world with harmony divine.

p. 123

Father of ages, guide of prosp'rous deeds, 15
The world's commander, borne by lucid steeds,
Immortal Jove, all-searching, bearing light,  ¹⁷
Source of existence, pure and fiery bright
Bearer of fruit, almighty lord of years,
Agil and warm, whom ev'ry pow'r reveres. 20
Great eye of Nature and the starry skies,
Doom'd with immortal flames to set and rise
Dispensing justice, lover of the stream,
The world's great despot, and o'er all supreme.
Faithful defender, and the eye of right, 25  ²⁵
Of steeds the ruler, and of life the light:
With founding whip four fiery steeds you guide,
When in the car of day you glorious ride.
Propitious on these mystic labours shine,
And bless thy suppliants with a life divine. 30

Footnotes

122:7 Ver. 7.] With thy right hand, &c. Proclus in lib. vi. Theol. Plat. P, 380, says that those who are skilled in divine concerns, attribute two hands to the Sun; denominating one the right hand, the other the left.

123:17 Ver. 17.] Immortal Jove. According to the Orphic and Platonic philosophers, the Sun is the same in the sensible, as Apollo in the intellectual, and Good in the intelligible World. Hence Proclus in Theol. Plat. p. 289. from the occult union subsisting between Good, Apollo, and the Sun, calls the Sun βασιλεὺς τυ παντός, or king of the universe: and it is well known that Jupiter is the demiurgus of the world. So that the Sun in perfect conformity to this Theology is called immortal Jove.

123:25 Ver. 25.] Faithful defender. Proclus, lib. v. in Timæum, in. forms us in the words of Orpheus ὅτι ἥλιον μὲν ἐπέστησε τοῖς ὅλιος, ὀ δημιυργος, και φύλακα ἀυτὸν ἔτευξε, κέλευσε τε πασιν ἀναάσσειν. "That the demiurgus placed the Sun in the universe, and fabricated him as its guardian, commanding him to govern all things."