Prayer

Use in the book

The conversation interrupts a religious errand, not an abstract inquiry proposed in advance. Socrates asks what Alcibiades must understand before he speaks to a god. The danger is surprisingly the success of the request: a person can ask for something damaging while thinking it good, and the gods may actually give it. Prayer therefore exposes a problem in the judgement that selects an object, not merely a failure to secure divine attention.

Tyranny, generalship and children supply progressively less exceptional instances. Oedipus deliberately wishes harm in anger, but ordinary people sincerely ask for benefits and obtain misery. Their subsequent wish to reverse the request shows that confidence at the time of praying cannot certify the goodness of its object. The same test applies to accepting a divine offer without first making a request: unsolicited possession is no safer if its use will harm its recipient.

Two forms of guarded prayer emerge. The unnamed poet asks Zeus for good things whether requested or not and for protection from damaging things even when requested. The Spartans ask only for fine things in addition to good ones. Both leave the specification of successful human wishing subordinate to goodness. Yet Alcibiades is not simply instructed to repeat one of these formulas. Socrates doubts that his greatness of soul will allow the Spartan restriction, and the practical outcome is postponement until education changes how he is disposed toward gods and people.

The end preserves worship as a future possibility. Alcibiades promises the gods wreaths and the customary offerings when the anticipated day comes, if they are willing. The movement is from unexamined asking to a willingness to learn before asking; it is neither an abolition of prayer nor a guarantee that correct words mechanically secure favourable events.

Places to read

1. 138a–138cThe journey to pray opens onto the risk that a harmful request will be fulfilled.
2. 141a–141dAcceptance of an offered tyranny and the act of asking for it receive the same test.
3. 142b–143b2Parents, retrospective unpraying and the unnamed poet reveal competing forms of petition.
4. 148b–148dCaution leads to the restricted Spartan prayer.
5. 150c–151b2Alcibiades postpones the sacrifice and looks toward a future return to customary worship.

Translation in this edition

The translation keeps pray and prayer for the same Greek family throughout. The lexical senses vow and wish explain the word’s range; they should not be converted into additional ceremonies asserted to occur in the scene. At 143a aneuktois means when we pray not, whereas the differently formed aneuchesthai at 142d and 148b means to unpray.

Use in the book

At 980b the Athenian asks whether the speakers should honor the gods greatly by hymning them and praying that the finest and best things to say about them may occur to them. The prayer asks for worthy speech. It does not request a favorable outcome irrespective of what is true, and it does not authorize the speaker to announce every thought that occurs to him as revelation. Clinias invites him to trust the gods and speak the account of fine things about gods and goddesses that comes to him. The response remains conditional: it will happen if the god himself leads the way. The Athenian asks Clinias to join in prayer and then proceeds with an argument.

This exchange prepares a theological correction. The Athenian will represent the generation of gods and living beings better than his predecessors did. Prayer and correction therefore coexist. Reverence does not require repeating inherited accounts unchanged; it requires that criticism seek a finer account of its divine subjects. The prayer also places the speaker within the account's hierarchy. The mortal investigator needs divine guidance before explaining how divine intelligence orders the world. That dependence will recur when the education of the best natures is said to require a god's leadership at 989d.

The passage follows the lawgiver's “fine play,” his hymns, and Clinias' wish for his best and finest end. It anticipates the alternative at 983e: heavenly beings must either be hymned as gods themselves or regarded as god-made images. Hymning is consequently more than a decorative opening. It is one appropriate response to the theological conclusion. The later demand to honor the ethereal and aerial beings with prayers at 984e also prevents identifying all prayer here solely with the visible stars.

The words “gods and goddesses” at 980c are inclusive cult language, not a list of the five bodily kinds. The conclusion returns to the same inclusiveness when the other citizens are to speak auspiciously of all gods and all goddesses at 992d–e2. Nor does Clinias' address δαιμόνιε make the Athenian one of the middle beings later called daimons. In the edition it is the courteous “my good sir.” A familiar address and a cosmological classification must be kept apart.

Places to read

1. 980bτοὺς θεοὺς ὑμνοῦντες — Honoring the gods by hymning them
2. 980bεὐχόμενοι τὰ κάλλιστα καὶ ἄριστα — The prayer concerns the finest and best things to say
3. 980cπιστεύσας τοῖς θεοῖς εὔχου τε καὶ λέγε — Clinias joins trust, prayer, and speech
4. 980cἂν αὐτὸς ὁ θεὸς ἡμῖν ὑφηγῆται — Divine guidance remains an explicit condition
5. 980cσυνεύχου μόνον — The listener is asked to join in prayer
6. 989dεἰ μὴ θεὸς ὑφηγοῖτο — The later teaching also requires divine leadership

Translation in this edition

“Hymning” preserves the verb instead of replacing it with a general “praising.” “Leads the way” makes the later recurrence of the same guidance audible. The printed dialogue gives the proposal and shared invocation without inserting a separate metrical hymn or a further prayer text. Such a text should not be supplied by the commentator.

Objects of hymn — θεός (theos)

θεός (theos)

Objects of hymn. The gods are the recipients of honor and the subjects about whom the speakers seek the finest speech. Attested: θεοὺς (980b). Prayer hymn and the new beginning.

Inclusive divine address — θεά (thea)

θεά (thea)

Inclusive divine address. Clinias explicitly includes goddesses in the requested fine account. The phrase does not identify a separate elemental class or provide an exhaustive named pantheon. Attested: θεάς (980c). Prayer hymn and the new beginning.

Reverent speech — ὑμνεῖν (hymnein)

ὑμνεῖν (hymnein)

Reverent speech. Hymning describes honoring the gods through speech worthy of them; the dialogue gives the proposal to hymn without supplying a separate metrical composition. Attested: ὑμνοῦντες (980b). Prayer hymn and the new beginning.

Shared invocation — συνεύχεσθαι (syneuchesthai)

συνεύχεσθαι (syneuchesthai)

Shared invocation. The Athenian asks Clinias to pray with him before the new theological account. The prefix makes the listener a participant in the appeal for divine guidance. Attested: συνεύχου (980c). Prayer hymn and the new beginning.

Divine guidance of inquiry — ὑφηγεῖσθαι (hyphēgeisthai)

ὑφηγεῖσθαι (hyphēgeisthai)

Divine guidance of inquiry. The Athenian makes the success of his proposed speech conditional on the god himself leading the speakers. The condition expresses dependence rather than a report that every subsequent clause is dictated. Attested: ὑφηγῆται (980c). Prayer hymn and the new beginning.

Divine guidance of teaching — ὑφηγεῖσθαι (hyphēgeisthai)

ὑφηγεῖσθαι (hyphēgeisthai)

Divine guidance of teaching. Even a capable human teacher would not teach without a god leading the way. This condition connects the prayerful opening with the education supported by the theological inquiry. Attested: ὑφηγοῖτο (989d). Divine guidance and the conditions of teaching; Prayer hymn and the new beginning.

Courteous address — δαιμόνιος (daimonios)

δαιμόνιος (daimonios)

Courteous address. Clinias addresses the Athenian as my good sir. The vocative is a courteous idiom, not a literal assignment of the speaker to the later ethereal class of daimons. Attested: δαιμόνιε (980c). Prayer hymn and the new beginning.

Prayer for worthy speech — εὔχεσθαι (euchesthai)

εὔχεσθαι (euchesthai)

Prayer for worthy speech. The speakers pray that the finest and best things to say about the gods may occur to them. The request concerns the quality of theological speech, not permission to report every thought as revelation. Attested: εὐχόμενοι (980b). Prayer hymn and the new beginning.

Trust before speaking — πιστεύειν (pisteuein)

πιστεύειν (pisteuein)

Trust before speaking. Clinias tells the Athenian to trust the gods, pray, and speak. Trust accompanies a request for the finer account; it does not replace the ensuing argument about soul and bodily kinds. Attested: πιστεύσας (980c). Prayer hymn and the new beginning.

Praying for the right things to say (contextual phrase)

εὐχόμενοι τὰ κάλλιστα καὶ ἄριστα περὶ αὐτῶν ἐπιέναι λέγειν ἡμῖν (980b)

The participle praying governs the wish that the finest and best things to say about the gods may come to the speakers. The requested gift is worthy theological speech. The phrase does not say that anything whatsoever which occurs to the speaker is thereby guaranteed to be true. Prayer hymn and the new beginning.

If the god himself leads (contextual phrase)

ἂν αὐτὸς ὁ θεὸς ἡμῖν ὑφηγῆται (980c)

The clause makes success conditional on divine guidance. The emphatic αὐτός belongs to the god himself; it is not the contracted αὑτός, the same, found at 985d. The first-person plural includes the listeners in the need for guidance. Prayer hymn and the new beginning.

A shared rather than solitary prayer (contextual phrase)

συνεύχου μόνον (980c)

The present imperative tells Clinias to join in prayer. The compound συν- makes his participation explicit, while μόνον, only, presents that participation as the immediate request before the Athenian begins the account. No unprinted liturgical text is implied. Prayer hymn and the new beginning.

Use in the book

Prayer “occupies one with God,” but Joubert distinguishes prayers that improve a person from prayers that make one worse. Virtue should be sought insistently; prosperity with resignation. A conditional reflection then credits prayer with changing feelings even if it does not change destiny. That conditional is not a declaration that destiny can never change. The daily injunction accumulates light, fire, model, peace and principle as objects upon which thought is fixed. A later fragment lists urgency, frequency, perseverance and even obstinacy. Together these witnesses describe demanding practice, not merely a request to obtain an external benefit.

Places to read

1. I, p. 179, entry 6, ¶1Prayer directs occupation toward God.
2. I, p. 187, entry 10, ¶1Moral value depends on what is asked for.
3. I, p. 282, entry 9, ¶1Changing feelings has a usefulness no less great than changing destiny.
4. I, p. 457, entry 5, ¶2Daily prayer takes the form of sustained thought and purification.
5. II, p. 912, entry 2, ¶1The closing fragment names persistent prayer and promised efficacy.

Translation in this edition

The English translation preserves the conditional “If,” the daily infinitives, and the forceful noun “obstinacy.” It renders vœux as wishes where requests for virtue and prosperity supply the context; a binding vow is not asserted.

Use in the book

The turn from explaining a truth to asking to live it marks an important movement of the Centuries. I.78 asks that remembered glory deepen humility and penitence rather than encourage self-exaltation. The soul needs help to inhabit what it has learned to recognize.

Prayer also belongs to a larger company. Revelation’s images in II.74 make the prayers of saints part of heavenly worship, while II.92 asks that every prayer be animated by awareness of the soul’s greatness. The speaker does not have to choose between bold inheritance and dependence. The more fully the gift is seen, the more searchingly the recipient can ask for the life adequate to it.

Places to read

1. I.78Petition seeks humility, penitence, and renewed sight within the memory of original glory.
2. II.74The prayers of saints appear within Revelation’s heavenly praise.
3. II.92Prayer is to be animated by the soul’s understood greatness and capacity.

In this edition

First-person prayers are enacted devotional speech, not merely biographical reports of completed attainment. Their petitions often disclose a gap between seeing and doing.

Use in the book

The notebook repeatedly turns from description into direct address. A violent recurrence of suffering ends in an appeal to God and the guardian angel; entry into Paris prompts a request that cherished landscapes stand before his eyes and protect him from overwhelming impressions. These prayers seek a changed relation to experience rather than simply the removal of circumstances.

Departure from La Chênaie redirects prayer ethically. Guérin asks that his own complaints go unheard and reserves tears for those who suffer, including enemies. The formulation is severe toward himself, yet its outward movement matters: devotional speech becomes a way to escape exclusive preoccupation with personal pain. In the providential meditation of May 1834, all creatures possess a ministry, and dust itself is imagined as a congregation at prayer.

Prayer can also arise after sensory quiet has calmed the inner city. It is then an outcome of gathered attention rather than its externally imposed beginning. This differs from the Good Friday retreat, where the required exercises provoke resistance. The journal makes room for both devotional difficulty and spontaneous inward assent.

Places to read

1. 12 June 1833 · ¶1The plea to God and the good angel follows an episode too severe to write through.
2. 7 December 1833 · ¶1The speaker asks not to make his own pain the sole object of divine attention.
3. 1 February 1834 · ¶1Prayer seeks an inward image of loved landscapes as protection while crossing the crowd.
4. 26 May 1834 · ¶1The world becomes a temple in which even dust performs a praying ministry.

Translation in this edition

“My God” preserves Mon Dieu even where it begins an exclamation rather than a developed petition. At 26 May 1834 · ¶1 “prostrate themselves and pray” retains the active liturgical dignity assigned to the imagined Levites of dust.

Use in the book

The Paris church first presents prayer through others: poor women prostrate themselves and sinners kneel at the tribunal of penance, emerging with more serene faces (p. 157). René observes these effects before addressing God himself. His petition asks both release from the weight of existence and a change of the old self. The juxtaposition keeps prayer close to need and contradiction, rather than making every religious emotion evidence of settled faith.

Amélie’s prayer is initially seen but not understood. René surprises her in tears at a crucifix, and her recurrent withdrawal to pray becomes one sign among many of a hidden conflict (p. 168). At profession he alone hears words emerging from under the funeral pall. She asks not to rise from the symbolic deathbed and prays for blessings upon the brother who has not shared her criminal passion. The revelation is decisive because it names both her feeling and his nonparticipation. The scene is not a mutually declared love, nor an intentional invitation to him.

René’s response transforms overhearing into spectacle: he embraces her, cries out, and disrupts the ceremony. His own interpretation then dominates the account, but the words remain hers and must not be silently replaced by his emotion. Later, at the coast, he imagines that a light behind a grille might mark Amélie praying for his safety (p. 187). The interrogative “Étoit-ce toi” means this is conjecture. The pensive nun of p. 184 likewise remains unnamed.

The work finally returns prayer to quiet action. Souël walks beside René praying while Chactas searches for his way (p. 191). There is no reported miraculous reply or sudden conversion. Prayer joins practical companionship and acknowledges dependence without resolving every event. Its arc runs from an observer’s hope of relief, through the peril of an overheard private address, to intercession carried on in the presence of another person. These shifting uses make it one of the story’s most important forms of mediated knowledge as well as of religious practice.

Places to read

1. p. 168se retiroit pour prier — A repeated action is visible to René before its cause becomes clear.
2. p. 180un frère qui n'a point partagé ma criminelle passion — Amélie explicitly excludes her brother from participation in the passion.
3. p. 187Étoit-ce toi, ô mon Amélie — The possible prayer at the window is a question within René’s account.
4. p. 191le missionnaire qui prioit Dieu — The final prayer is narrated as ongoing accompaniment.

Translation in this edition

The edition’s English “a brother who has not shared my criminal passion” preserves the crucial negation on p. 180. A paraphrase suggesting shared or consummated incest would contradict this attestation.

Use in the book

Mon cœur mis à nu LXVIII combines the provocative description of God as universally prostituted with a prayer for the mother, father, and Mariette. The movement from paradox to petition matters: speculative language about boundless divine availability leads into a specific need for daily duty. The wish to become a hero and saint is tied to immediate conduct.

Mon cœur mis à nu CXV reduces wisdom to grooming, prayer, and work, and gives prayer three ends: charity, wisdom, strength. Mon cœur mis à nu CXVI compares the evening worshipper to a captain posting sentries, a figure of delegated vigilance that makes rest possible. Prayer protects the interval in which active command ceases.

Mon cœur mis à nu CXVII turns those ends into morning and evening rules. The requests concern strength, the mother's continued life, the success of projects, and justice. Work is to continue as strength permits, while income is distributed among obligations. These details distinguish the prayer from vague uplift. At the same time, Mon cœur mis à nu CI admits that usurers and murderers may ask God to assist their enterprises. Addressing God does not itself guarantee a petition's moral quality.

Places to read

1. Mon cœur mis à nu LXVIIIfaire immédiatement mon devoir tous les jours — The petition asks for capacity expressed in immediate habit.
2. Mon cœur mis à nu CXVPrière : charité, sagesse et force. — The condensed rule gives prayer several ethical ends.
3. Mon cœur mis à nu CXVIIl peut dormir. — The sentry metaphor makes prayer a condition of rest.
4. Mon cœur mis à nu CXVIIréservoir de toute force et de toute justice — The final vow joins effective strength to a moral source.

Translation in this edition

The single pair of source brackets around Mon cœur mis à nu LXVIII encloses the reflection on God, the heading, and the prayer together; it does not mark a passage newly supplied by the 2026 translator. ‘Intercessors’ in Mon cœur mis à nu CXVII retains the distinct role of the father, Mariette, and Poe. The translated routine is a vow, not evidence that Baudelaire followed it every day.