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Proclus the Neoplatonist (about 411 AD to 485) was not just the industrious author of a voluminous philosophical oeuvre, but also the composer of elegant hymns. This is one of his two surviving hymns on Aphrodite. These hymns are the object of my doctoral research. It is my contention that these hynms were not just the products of literary amateurism which have nothing to do with philosophy, like Plato's epigrams, but that they are part of Proclus' philosophical activities. In my paper Towards the Paternal Harbour. Proclean Theurgy and the Contemplation of the Forms you can read some of my ideas about how these hymns were supposed to attribute to doing philosophy.

Literature on Proclus' hymns

Text

• E. Vogt, Procli Hymni accedunt hymnorum fragmenta, epigrammata, scholia, fontium et locorum similium apparatus, indices, Wiesbaden 1957.

Translations

• H. D. Saffrey, Proclus Hymnes et prières, Paris 1944: best translation available (in French) with the Greek text of Vogt's edition, an introduction and a bibliographical note.
• Thomas Taylor (1795), reprinted in: D. R. Fideler (ed.), K. S. Guthrie, The Life of Proclus or Concerning Happiness Including Five Hymns of Proclus Translated by Thomas Taylor, Grand Rapids 1986 (free renderings in English of Proclus' hymns to Helios, the Muses, Aphrodite, Aphrodite of Lycia and Athena).
• E. Pinto, Proclo, Inni, Introduzione, testo critico, traduzione commento e lessico, Napoli 1975 (translation in Italian).
• K. H. E. de Jong, De hymnen van Proclus, Den Haag 1952 (rather free translation in Dutch).

Some articles on Proclus' hymns

• M. Erler, 'Interpretieren als Gottesdienst. Proklos' Hymnen vor dem Hintergrund seines Kratyloskommentars', in: G. Boss and G. Seel (edd.) Proclus et son influence, actes du colloque de Neuchâtel, Zürich 1987: 179-217.
• H. D. Saffrey, 'L'hymne IV de Proclus prière aux dieux des oracles chaldaïques', in: Neoplatonisme, mélanges offerts à Jean Trouillard, Fontenay aux Roses 1981: 297-312.
• H. D. Saffrey, 'La dévotion de Proclus au Soleil', Annales de l'Institut de Philosophie et de Sciences morales, 1984: 73-86 (on Proclus' hymn to Helios).
• H. D. Saffrey, 'Proclus, les Muses et l' amour des livres à Athens au Ve siècle' in: H. J. Westra, From Athens to Chartres: Neoplatonism and Medieval Thought, Studies in Honour of Edouard Jeauneau, Leiden 1992: 163-171 (on Proclus' hymn to the Muses).