Editing Hymn to Proserpine

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"'''Hymn to Proserpine'''" is a [[poetry|poem]] by [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]], published in ''[[Poems and Ballads]]'' in 1866. The poem is addressed to the [[goddess]] [[Proserpina]], the Roman equivalent of [[Persephone]], but laments the rise of Christianity for displacing the pagan goddess and her pantheon.<ref>{{Citation |last=Louis |first=Margot Kathleen |date= Spring 2005 |title=Gods and Mysteries: The Revival of Paganism and the Remaking of Mythography through the Nineteenth Century  |journal=Victorian Studies |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=329–361 |doi=10.1353/vic.2005.0100}}</ref>

The [[Epigraph (literature)|epigraph]] at the beginning of the poem is the phrase ''Vicisti, Galilaee'', [[Latin]] for "You have conquered, O [[Galilean]]", the supposed [[Wikiquote:Last words|dying words]] of the Emperor [[Julian the Apostate|Julian]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Theodoret of Cyrrus |title=Ecclesiastical History |series=Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II |volume=III |at=3.20 |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nicene_and_Post-Nicene_Fathers:_Series_II/Volume_III/Theodoret/Ecclesiastical_History/Book_III/Chapter_20 |accessdate=2022-10-17}}.</ref> He had tried to reverse the official endorsement of Christianity by the [[Roman Empire]]. The poem is cast in the form of a [[lament]] by a person professing the [[paganism]] of [[classical antiquity]] and lamenting its passing, and expresses regret at the rise of Christianity.<ref>{{cite book |last=Eron |first=Sarah |year=2003 |title=Myth, Pattern, and Paradox in Swinburne's "Hymn to Proserpine" |publisher=Victorian Web |url=http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/swinburne/eron9.html |accessdate=9 October 2013 }}</ref>

The line "Time and the Gods are at strife" inspired the title of [[Lord Dunsany]]'s ''Time and the Gods''.

The poem is quoted by Sue Bridehead in [[Thomas Hardy]]'s 1895 novel ''[[Jude the Obscure]]'', and also by Edward Ashburnham in [[Ford Madox Ford]]'s ''[[The Good Soldier]]''.

==See also==
* "[[The Garden of Proserpine]]", another poem by A. C. Swinburne
* ''[[Poems and Ballads]]''

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikisource}}
*[http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/hymn-proserpine Full text] at the University of Toronto Library

{{Algernon Charles Swinburne}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hymn To Proserpine}}
[[Category:British poems]]
[[Category:1866 poems]]
[[Category:Victorian poetry]]
[[Category:Proserpina]]
[[Category:Poetry by Algernon Charles Swinburne]]