This is my translation of the “Prayer to Selene” which appears at PGM IV.2785-2890.

One interesting thing about this prayer is the way in which it blurs together several goddesses of the pantheon, including Selene, Artemis, Persephone and the Fates. This is typical of the mystical strand in Greek and Graeco-Egyptian religion. The PGM sometimes blur together goddesses of the moon and the underworld; they also blur together figures who may be called chief-gods and sun-gods: Helios, Mithras, Zeus, Apollo and indeed the Jewish deity Iao. In this tradition, the divine is both singular and plural.

Prayer to Selene for any working

Come to me, dear mistress, three-faced Selene,

and listen favourably to my holy invocations.

Ornament of night, young one.

You shine on mortals, early-born queen.

You ride on fierce bulls;

you ride in your horse-drawn chariot on a course equal to Helios.

You dance with the three Graces in their three forms,

revelling among the stars.

You are Justice and the threads of the Fates,

Klotho and Lachesis and Atropos.

Three-headed one, Persephone, Megaira, Allekto, many-formed one.

You arm your hands with terrible dark lamps;

from your forehead you shake locks of fearful snakes;

from your mouths you send forth the roar of bulls;

your womb is covered with the scales of reptiles;

from your shoulders venomous knots of serpents

hang down your back, bound with deadly chains.

Night-crier, bull-faced one, lover of solitude, bull-headed one;

you have the eyes of a bull and the voice of a dog;

you manifest your form in the legs of a lion;

you have the ankles of a wolf.

Fierce dogs are dear to you, and so they call you Hekate.

Many named one, Mene,

you cut the air like Artemis, the shooter of arrows.

Goddess with four faces and four names, goddess of crossroads,

Artemis, Persephone, deer-shooter, shining in the night.

Triple-sounding, triple-voiced, triple-headed, triple-named Selene,

triple-cornered, triple-faced, triple-necked, goddess of the triple roads.

You hold the eternal flame of fire in triple baskets;

you rule the triple roads; you reign over the triple decades.

Be gracious to me as I call on you, and hear me benevolently.

You travel around the vast world at night;

the daemons shudder before you and the gods tremble;

you bring men glory.

Many-named goddess, with fair children,

bull-faced one, horned one, mother of gods and men.

Nature, mother of all.

You go about on Olympos,

and you roam across the broad and boundless abyss.

You are the beginning and the end;

you alone rule over all things;

everything comes from you and everything ends in you, eternal one.

As an everlasting diadem around your temples

you wear the unbreakable and unlooseable bonds of Kronos,

and in your hands you hold a golden sceptre;

Kronos himself inscribed the characters around your sceptre

and gave it to you to carry, so that all things may stand secure.

Tamer and tamed, tamer of men, tamer of taming.

You rule over the voids.

ARARAKHARARA ÉPHTHISIKÉRE

Hail, goddess, and hear me as I invoke you.

I offer these herbs to you, child of Zeus,

shooter of arrows, heavenly one, goddess of harbours,

wanderer of mountains, goddess of crossroads,

infernal goddess, goddess of the night,

goddess of the underworld, goddess of darkness,

quiet goddess, frightful goddess;

you dine among the tombs.

Night, Erebos, yawning Void.

You are Necessity, hard to escape; you are Fate, you are Fury,

you are Torment, you are Destroyer, you are Justice.

You hold Kerberos in chains.

You are dark with scales of serpents;

snakes are your hair and a serpent is your girdle.

You drink blood, you bring death, you breed corruption,

you dine on hearts, you eat flesh, you devour those who die untimely.

You echo among graves and sting men to wander in madness.

Come to my sacrifice and carry out this working for me.

Offering for the working. If you are doing good, offer storax, myrrh, sphagnon, frankincense and pyréna. If you are doing harm, offer the substance of a dog and a dappled goat, or alternatively that of a virgin untimely dead.

Phylactery for the working. Take an iron stone and engrave on it Hekate with three faces: the middle face should be that of a maiden with horns; the left one that of a dog; and the right one that of a goat. After carving it, clean it with natron and water, and dip it in the blood of one who has died by violence. Then make a food-offering to it and read the text above while carrying out the ritual.