Vesta, bring favor: now I open my lips and perform the sacred rites

If it’s permitted for me to approach the sacred grounds of your temple.

O keeper of the Heliconian hill

Kin of Urania,

Hestia, you who tend the sacred house

Of Lord Apollo at holy Pytho…

Hestia, you who have attained by lot an eternal seat,

The highest honor, in the lofty halls of everyone…

And there were found in the floor and the walls the dug up remains of human bodies, incantations and infernal sacrifices, and Germanicus’ name inscribed on lead tablets, half-burned ashes smeared with gore, and other wicked things which are believed to commit souls to the infernal powers.

Mercury, eloquent grandson of Atlas,

Who skillfully shaped the savage customs of the

Early days of man with voice and with the graceful

Custom of the wrestling ring…