honorthegods:Liberty in the Form of the Goddess of Youth Giving Support to the Republic depicted as

honorthegods:Liberty in the Form of the Goddess of Youth Giving Support to the Republic depicted as the Eagle. Silk embroidery by Mary Green, age 16, of Worcester, MA, 1804. Based on the 1796 engraving of the same name by Edward Savage. Source: XThe motif is based on images from antiquity of Hebe, goddess of Youth, daughter of Hera and Zeus, and cupbearer to Zeus, offering wine to Zeus in the form of an eagle.Hymn to ZeusMost glorious of immortals, Zeus The many named, almighty evermore, Nature’s great Sovereign, ruling all by lawHail to thee! On thee ‘tis meet and right That mortals everywhere should call.From thee was our begetting; ours aloneOf all that live and move upon the earthThe lot to bear God’s likeness.Thee will I ever chant, thy power praise!For thee this whole vast cosmos, wheeling roundThe earth, obeys, and where thou leadestIt follows, ruled willingly by thee.In thy unconquerable hands thou holdest fast,Ready prepared, that two-timed flaming blast,The ever-living thunderbolt:Nature’s own stroke brings all things to their end.By it thou guidest aright the sense instinctWhich spreads through all things, mingled evenWith stars in heaven, the great and small-Thou who art King supreme for evermore!Naught upon earth is wrought in thy despite, 0 God.Nor in the ethereal sphere aloft which ever windsAbout its pole, nor in the sea-save only whatThe wicked work, in their strange madness,Yet even so, thou knowest to make the crooked straight.Prune all excess, give order to the orderless,For unto thee the unloved still is lovely-And thus in one all things are harmonized, The evil with the good, that so one Word Should be in all things everlastingly.One Word-which evermore the wicked flee!Ill-fated, hungering to possess the goodThey have no vision of God’s universal law,Nor will they hear, though if obedient in mindThey might obtain a noble life, true wealth.Instead they rush unthinking after ill:Some with a shameless zeal for fame,Others pursuing gain, disorderly;Still others folly, or pleasures of the flesh.[But evils are their lot] and other timesBring other harvests, all unsought-For all their great desire, its opposite!But, Zeus, thou giver of every gift,Who dwellest within the dark clouds, wielding stillThe flashing stroke of lightning, save, we pray,Thy children from this boundless misery.Scatter, 0 Father, the darkness from their souls,Grant them to find true understandingOn which relying thou justly rulest all-While we, thus honoured, in turn will honour thee,Hymning thy works forever, as is meetFor mortals while no greater rightBelongs even to the gods than evermoreJustly to praise the universal law!` Cleanthes of Assos (331-233 B.C.)Translation by Frederick C. Grant, in his Hellenistic Religions (New York, 1953), PP. 152-4 Reblogging because there isn’t much being posted about Independence Day on tumblr this year. May Zeus Eleutherios, Protector of Freedom, bless the United States, that this nation, under the guidance of the many gods worshiped by its people, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. -- source link

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