The FUMIGATION from VARIOUS ODORS I Call strong Pan, the substance of the whole, Etherial, marine, earthly, general soul, Immortal fire; for all the world is thine, And all are parts of thee, O pow'r divine. Come, blessed Pan, whom rural haunts delight, Come, leaping, agile, wand'ring, starry light; The Hours and Seasons, wait thy high command, And round thy throne in graceful order stand. Goat-footed, horned, Bacchanalian Pan, Fanatic pow'r, from whom the world began, Whose various parts by thee inspir'd, combine In endless dance and melody divine. In thee a refuge from our fears we find, Those fears peculiar to the human kind. Thee shepherds, streams of water, goats rejoice, Thou. lov'st the chace, and Echo's secret voice: 16 The sportive nymphs, thy ev'ry step attend, 17 And all thy works fulfill their destin'd end. O all-producing pow'r, much-fam'd, divine, The world's great ruler, rich increase is thine. All-fertile Pæan, heav'nly splendor pure, In fruits rejoicing, and in caves obscure. 22 True serpent-horned Jove, whose dreadful rage 23 When rous'd, 'tis hard for mortals to asswage. By thee the earth wide-bosom'd deep and long, Stands on a basis permanent and strong. Th' unwearied waters of the rolling sea, Profoundly spreading, yield to thy decree. Old Ocean too reveres thy high command, Whose liquid arms begirt the solid land. The spacious air, whose nutrimental fire, And vivid blasts, the heat of life inspire The lighter frame of fire, whose sparkling eye Shines on the summit of the azure sky, Submit alike to thee, whole general sway All parts of matter, various form'd obey. All nature's change thro' thy protecting care, And all mankind thy lib'ral bounties share: For these where'er dispers'd thro' boundless space, Still find thy providence support their race. Come, Bacchanalian, blessed power draw near, Fanatic Pan, thy humble suppliant hear, Propitious to these holy rites attend, And grant my life may meet a prosp'rous end; Drive panic Fury too, wherever found, From human kind, to earth's remotest bound.

(12) And the people accompanied him, saying, "Bedu, Zaps, Chthon, Plectron, Sphinx, Cnaxzbi, Chthyptes, Phlegmos, Drops." Callimachus relates the story in iambics. Cnaxzbi is, by derivation, the plague, from its gnawing (knaiein) and destroying diafqeirein, and qxyai is to consume with a thunderbolt. Thespis the tragic poet says that something else was signified by these, writing thus: "Lo, I offer to thee a libation of white Cnaxzbi, having pressed it from the yellow nurses. Lo, to thee, O two-horned Pan, mixing Chthyptes cheese with red honey, I place it on thy sacred altars.

(4) Hermes, which is the name of my forebear, whose home is in a place called after him, doth aid and guard all mortal [men] who come to him from every side. As for Osiris’ [spouse]; how many are the blessings that we know Isis bestows when she’s propitious; how many does she injure when she’s wrath! For that the terrene and the cosmic Gods are easily enraged, in that they are created and composed of the two natures.

(6) It is natural, then, that having a superstitious dread of those irascible [gods], they imagine that all events are signs and causes of evils. If a mouse bore through an altar built of clay, and for want of something else gnaw through an oil flask; if a cock that is being fattened crow in the evening, they determine this to be a sign of something.