Prayer to Apollo in Time of Plague
Fair Apollo, son of thundering Zeus who holds
in his hands the order of the world, golden god
who parcels health and illness to all as is fit,
who holds the door against disease or lets it in,
all at your will. Apollo, we thank you for health,
we thank you for the gifts of modern medicine
and the gifts of traditional cures and healing.
We thank you a world in which plague and pandemic
are uncommon. Yet what is rare still exists,
O Paean, and is as deadly as ever it was.
Great Apollo, kind-hearted god, I pray to you,
protect us from all ill. Keep from our gates infirmity
and affliction, turn away the epidemic and the blight.
Apollo, mighty one in whose power it lies
to bless us with relief from all maladies,
to end a pestilence, I pray for your favor.
in his hands the order of the world, golden god
who parcels health and illness to all as is fit,
who holds the door against disease or lets it in,
all at your will. Apollo, we thank you for health,
we thank you for the gifts of modern medicine
and the gifts of traditional cures and healing.
We thank you a world in which plague and pandemic
are uncommon. Yet what is rare still exists,
O Paean, and is as deadly as ever it was.
Great Apollo, kind-hearted god, I pray to you,
protect us from all ill. Keep from our gates infirmity
and affliction, turn away the epidemic and the blight.
Apollo, mighty one in whose power it lies
to bless us with relief from all maladies,
to end a pestilence, I pray for your favor.