An Orphic Hymn. In the rubric it gives the suffumigation as Frankincense, although in modern terms this would be Dragon’s Blood.
Mars
Magnanimous, unconquer’d, boistrous Mars,
In darts rejoicing, and in bloody wars
Fierce and untam’d, whose mighty pow’r can make
The strongest walls from their foundations shake:
Mortal destroying king, defil’d with gore,
Pleas’d with war’s dreadful and tumultuous roar:
Thee, human blood, and swords, and spears delight,
And the dire ruin of mad savage fight.
Stay, furious contests, and avenging strife,
Whose works with woe, embitter human life;
To lovely Venus, and to Bacchus yield,
To Ceres give the weapons of the field;
Encourage peace, to gentle works inclin’d,
And give abundance, with benignant mind.
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Tired of Taylor, so I tried a version myself. My Greek is poor and I don’t have a copy at hand anyway, so this is just an interpretation from Taylor’s version:
Big-minded, unbeaten, noisy Mars
whose joy is in projectiles and exchange of bloody blows
and in all bitter encounters, o you whose strength
breaks towers and pulls to earth the mightiest walls;
o you destroyer of mortal rule, o you blood-marked king
humming happily war’s shattering tunes;
you to whom shed blood and use-polished weapons
are well pleasing, o you who run with the madness of
death-dealing struggle, pause a moment here
your course of ravage and vengeance, hold off a while
your works that with such woe embitter human life.
Hold a place for seductive Venus, and for the Bacchic mind;
to fruitful DAMater hand your tools, and for a time
encourage peace and lend aid to gentle works:
to abundance, and to the blessing-seeking mind.
I kind of like it.