Hymn to Diana

[athene]

x-posted to my own journal, classics, latin, and mythology

34 - Hymn to Diana
By Catullus (translated by me)

We unmarried girls and boys
Are under the tutelage of Diana:
Unmarried boys and girls
Let us sing to Diana.

O daughter of Leto,
Great offspring of greatest Jove,
Your mother birthed you
Near a Delian olive tree,

So you could be mistress of the mountains
And of the growing woods
And of the secluded woodland glades
And of the sounding rivers:

You are called Lucina Juno
By women the pains of childbirth,
You are called magical Triple-Way¹ and
Luna by your counterfeit light.

You, goddess, in your monthly course
Marking off the journey of the year,
You fill up the rural hut
Of the farmer with good crops.

By whatever name pleases you
May you be divine,
And as you have been accustomed to before, may you
Preserve the offspring of Romulus with good auspices.


34
Dianae sumus in fide
puellae et pueri integri:
Dianam pueri integri
puellaeque canamus.

O Latonia, maximi
magna progenies Iovis,
quam mater prope Deliam
deposivit olivam,

monitum domina ut fores
silvarumque virentium
saltuumque reconditorum
amniumque sonantum:

tu Lucina dolentibus
Iuno dicta puerperis,
tu potens Trivia et notho es
dicta lumine Luna.

Tu cursu, dea, menstruo
metiens iter annuum,
rustica agricolae bonis
tecta frugibus exples.

Sis quocumque tibi placet
sancta nomine, Romulique,
anitque ut solita es, bona
sospites ope gentem.


¹The latin is Trivia, or Three-Roads, which implies Hekate, the triple goddess of the crossroads and of magic.