Remember, O Dionysos who intercedes
with the Lady Persephonē, that I am
a child of Earth and starry Heaven,
a creature of conflicting impulses
madly running through the dark,
confusing corridors of the Labyrinth
searching for answers to questions
I don’t even know how to frame.
I want to do right, to be pious,
to glorify you, and to bring honor
to my people through my words and deeds,
and yet it is so easy to fall short,
to act wrongly, to think the things
that I should not, to give in
to pessimism and doubt,
or worse the haughtiness
and violence which are in me
because of my Titanic ancestry.
Force of Liberation,
Breaker of Chains,
Loosener, I implore you,
Dionysos grant me
strength of will,
and the grace to subdue
my old self to the new,
and the new self to you,
that I may be counted worthy
to bear the blessed name of Bakchos,
and celebrate your orgies in the afterlife
with the other wine-rich initiates.
Strengthened by love of you,
I shall renew my struggle
and sacrifice to you the best
version of myself I can produce,
day by day and night by night
until I reach your surpassingly beautiful mountain,
where I may dance forever with you, Loudroaring One.