by Horatius Piscinus on Sun May 02, 2004 3:17 pm
Salvete sodales et comreligiones
I would like to begin discussing Roman prayers a bit more in our collegium. Below is something I posted elsewhere to begin just such a discussion.
First we should mention a couple of concepts related to Roman prayers. No prayer is made without offering a sacrifice, or the promise of a sacrifice. ?Moreover, in fact, a sacrifice is thought to be ineffective when made without prayer, and without prayer the Gods are thought not to have been properly consulted (Pliny Nat. Hist. 18.10)).? Centuries later Sallustius wrote, ?Prayers offered without sacrifices are only words, with sacrifices they are live words; the wording gives meaning to the life while the life animates the words.? A sacrificatio will always include oblationes, or the offering of incense, wine, foodstuffs, or such votives as vessels, statues, altars, or even a temple. In ancient times blood sacrifices, immolationes, were offered as well in some rites. Blood sacrifices were not used for taking the auspices, but as the Gods were being called to provide the auspices, oblationes were first offered. Servius even mentions (Ad Aen. 6.190) that in augury there were two kinds of signs considered. The auspicia were signs that one asked to receive from the Gods. The oblativa were signs that were not requested but resulted from offering oblationes. While we are familiar with the lituus as an emblem of an augur, the other augural emblem was a capis. This earth vessel was covered in pitch to hold a liquid, and had one looping handle and a spout. Probably it was used to offer a libation as part of the augur?s oblativa, although it could have served in a rite of drawing lots which was another form of augury. When immolationes were offered to one or more Gods, other Gods would first be called to witness the rite, and these were offered only oblationes. The Gods receiving a blood sacrifice would also receive oblationes both before and after the immolatio. At each stage of a rite then, prayers were being offered, along with sacrifices, but in a somewhat different manner depending on who was being called and why.
A second concept has to do with Roman pietus. It is often noted that Roman prayer had a contractual sense to them. Actually that is a little misleading, because only certain rites and their associated prayers would involve giving or fulfilling a vow, and vows were made as contracts with the Gods. In Livy we have an example of a simple vow. ?If today, Bellona, You grant us victory, a new temple I vow (10.19.17-18).? In the Odes of Horace there is a vow to Faunus for a single sacrifice if he is mild (3.18.1-8). At another point Horace fulfills a vow to Diana for Her assistance during the childbirth of his children by dedicating a new shrine to Her, and as part of that dedication he makes a new vow to offer annual sacrifices (3.22.1-8). That vow would not only be his obligation to fulfill each year, but would also become an obligation for his heir, the vow becoming part of the family?s cultus geniale. Roman pietatis, as Festus mentions and Cicero elaborated, revolves around fulfilling all the obligations one has to the Lares and to fulfilling such vows as were made to the Gods in the cultus geniale. Roman purification rites, made prior to participating in a formal ritual, entailed meeting such obligations in order to fulfil one?s pietus. A person might ritually bathe in a river and purify himself with fumigations, or spend a period of fast and abstinence as for the rites of Ceres, but the significant feature of Roman purification was the sacrifice of a pig to one?s Lares and to any Manes to whom an obligation was owed, whether knowingly or not. In some prayers then a worshipper will call on the Gods by referring to his pietus, or, as in the case of the Vestal Tuccia, ?if I have always brought pure hands to Your secret services ?(Valerius Maximus 8.1.5 absol.).? Because this notion of purity and piety revolved around fulfilling one?s obligations, an important phase in any Roman ritual is to call on Gods to act as your witnesses. The initial prayers of the praesidium, or main celebrant of a ritual, made during the praefatio was just such a plea, obtestari deos.
A third thing to remember is that Romans offered prayer with gestures. Recall how Decius Mus was instructed to offer his prayer for a devotio with one hand touching his chin as he stood on a spear (Livy 8.9). Appel lists 45 Latin terms that may be translated as ?to pray.? Each term, however, has a unique connotation. Sometimes one simply speaks with the Gods, adloqui deos. At other times one invokes the Gods through song and especially with dance, excantari deos. But certain Latin terms indicate specific gestures were used as the Gods were invoked. For example, when the Romans mention a prayer of adoration, adorare deos, it implies that the prayer is said with the adoratio gesture, ?moving his hand to his lips and kissing it (Minucius Felix, Octavius II.4).? The hand is then touched to the altar (Pliny N. H. 9.250, Virgil Aeneis 8.81-5; 12.201Apuleius Apologia 56). Frequently there is mention of Romans raising their hands to the Gods as they prayed. There are three gestures used when first calling the Gods. Depending on whether the Gods are being invoked or saluted, these are the vocatio and the salutatio, the latter made either supinus manus or pronus. To simply address the Gods, initially the right hand is held loosely with the index finger only slightly extended and bent. It is the familiar gesture of Roman orators addressing the crowds. But to invoke the Gods (invocare deos), to summon and plead to the Gods (advocare deos), to call Them away from a place (evocare deos) or from an action (devocare deos), and in similar situations where one is arguing his case to the Gods, the gesture of the vocatio is made with the index and middle finger extended and the thumb bent at a right angle at their base. The hand is held more loose than in the gesture used by the BSA when making a pledge, but firmer than the gesture of a Catholic bishop?s blessing, and the fingers are oriented towards the Gods being invoked. The salutatio generally refers to the hand held supinus manus. This gesture is specifically associated with a salutation of the celestial Gods, with the open palm having the fingers bent slightly back and raised toward the sky. One faces in whichever direction from which the Gods are being invoked. Often prayers were said at dawn and thus the eastern horizon is indicated as the direction one faces while praying. At night orientation would be made towards the moon or certain stars. In one instance the North Star is specified. Elsewhere the sacrifice to Robigo is made in the direction of Sirius. Other stars and the planets were associated with specific deities, and so addressing those Gods and Goddesses the palm is oriented in the star?s direction. Similarly, when addressing the Di inferi, especially when making a vow at the altar, the pronus gesture was used with the palm facing down, either to the earth or over the flame on the altar. Completing the pompa, coming to a halt at a distance from the altar, the vocatio or salutatio was given first, and then one moved towards the altar, circling it three times, using a different gesture for an affari deos. This is made with the arm bent at the waist, the forearm forward with the palm of the hand facing up. The gesture is made as though carrying an offering to the altar, whether actually holding an offering or not. Usually your oblatio offerings would be carried by others who assist in the rite. At certain stages of a rite, when oblationes are offered, prayers are made with the hand held in the liberalitas gesture. This is where the palm is held out facing up, holding incense, coins, raw ore or other items, loosely in the palm, or for a libation of wine using a patera, and then turning the wrist sideways to let the offering fall into the flame. The hand remains in the liberalitas as one continues through his prayer. It is the basic gesture of Roman prayer. Depictions of sacra show others who attend the praesidium around the altar, the slaughter made off to one side, using the liberalitas along with the praesidium. It is very similar to a gesture made by a waiter showing you to your table and was used by the Romans in much the same way, to indicate to the Gods, as they prayed, exactly what they were offering. Another gesture that is used during Roman rites, similar in appearance to the liberalitas, is found when the praesidium orders the minister sacrificii to perform the actual sacrifice of a victim. The assisting minister asks, ?Agone?? and the praesidium replies with a hand gesture and says, ?Hoc age.? All of these gestures of the right hand naturally flow from one to the other and yet are distinct. That is why when the Silius Italicus said that ?Scipio raised his hands to the heavens,? or Valerius Flaccus says ?raising palms heavenward,? or Virgil, or Livy speak of ?hands raised? in the plural, the reference is not to raising both hands at once, but of raising the right hand alone, in various gestures. An exception is where one pours libations to the Di Inferi. In that situation the left hand is specified by Statius and others as the one used to pour the libation, while the right hand would be held pronus.
Lastly, some prayers are spoken aloud, others intoned, and some are murmured, depending on when they are said in a ritual. In most cases Roman rites are to be performed outdoors, under the open sky where the Gods may view their performance. The payers are then said aloud in a clear voice as though addressing distant members in an audience. However Cicero speaks of some prayers being intoned, and Pliny, too, speaks about the power of words when intoned. Certain Roman prayers are carmina and are intended to be intoned as a charm. These are used when summoning, invoking or otherwise calling forth the Gods from a distant place to attend a rite. Once a sign is given of Their presence, then They would be addressed aloud. However at the point where the praesidium bends over the oblationes or the victims of an immolatio to devote them to the Gods, these prayers are murmured so as not to reveal the secret name of a God or Goddess. The names that are familiar to us from myth and poetry are really titles, used when addressing the Gods aloud. The use of secret names is mentioned at such places as Pliny Natural History 28.18, Servilius Ad Aeneis 2.251 and On the Georgics 1.498, Macrobius Saturnalia 3.9.2, and Plutarch Roman Questions 61. As one moves through a Roman ritual, therefore, the manner of addressing the Gods alters. Thus the terms used to mean ?to pray,? associated with certain gestures, can also connote whether a prayer is to be said aloud in a clear voice or intoned, or can imply that the prayer is murmured. Intoned prayers are those that arouse the Gods (ciere deos, excitare, profari, attestari, evocare, imprecari, obsecrare, sollicitare, et cetera). Most other terms indicate calling out aloud or speaking formally (appellare, petere, et cetera), with some terms indicating instead that one speaks in a more informal, normal form of speech (orare deos, adloqui, rogare, salutare). The term implorare deos means that the prayer is wailed aloud with tears. Generally when a prayer is to be murmured the Romans simply stated it as such, although terms based on venerari deos likely imply the same.
There is therefore a kind of flow through a Roman ritual, where the manner of addressing the Gods alters at each step, signaled by different gestures and motions. The pompa brings the praesidium and his or her ministeri to the altar along with the sacrificial offerings, sacred vessels and perhaps images. He intones the attestari deos and calls out aloud the salutatio. In formal tones he orders his assistants to perform their part of a ritual. They may carry offerings up to him to murmur a prayer over them, devoting the offering to a deity, and the assistant would then carry the offering three times around the altar before the praesidium or his assistant would offer it into the flames with prayers once more said aloud. At the end of the sacrifices the praesidium would then turn around, saying prayers aloud as he gives the gesture of liberalitas. It was at this final stage of the sacrifice that tradition said Camillus stumbled, an omen it was thought presaging his exile (Livy 5.21.16-17). The same is of course true with each step of a ritual potentially holding omens, or even requiring that omens be taken. Thus interspersed throughout a ritual the attendees may wait in silence for a sign to continue or vitiate the rite.
Di Deaeque vos semper ament
M Horatius Piscinus
Sapere aude!