Isis
Metamorphosis XI, 1
"About the first watch of the night, when as I had slept my first sleep, I awakened with sudden fear, and saw the moon shining bright as when she is at the full, and seemingly as though she leaped out of the sea. Then I thought with myself that this was the most secret time, when the goddess had the most puissance and force, considering that all human things be governed by her providence; and that not only all beasts private and tame, wild and savage, be made strong by the governance of her light and godhead, but also things inanimate and without life; and I considered that all the bodies in the heavens, the earth, and the seas be by her increasing motions increased, and by her diminishing motions diminished."
-Apuleius as he looks out on the sea and wonders at the might of the Universal Goddess of Isis.
I read this beautiful passage when I was taking an Ancient Religions of Rome and Greece class, and it really struck me. The way the waves crash with the shining moon on the horizon...its no wonder the ancient Romans saw this as a sign from a powerful deity.
