Prayers of Ovid

This collegium and forum are dedicated to the study, discussion, re-creation and application of classical Roman and Greek religion and philosophy.

Moderator: Aldus Marius

Prayers of Ovid

Postby Horatius Piscinus on Thu Feb 19, 2004 7:59 pm

Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BCE - 17 CE)


Prayers from the Metamorphoses

I.2-4: "Gods, inspire me now, at the start of my work, for you know how to change and as such, to begin, lead my song through all of time, from the origin of the universe down to my own time."

I.377-80: Deucalion and Pyrra cried aloud, "If prayers, as they say, may soften divine Justice, if the anger of the Gods may be turned aside, Themis, tell me how are we to repair what was so soundly devastated, immerse yourself in our work, Most Gentle Goddess, and tell how we are to carry it out."

I.487-9: Daphne, daughter of Peneus pleaded, "Father, grant me what Diana?s father has granted her; let me remain, as I am, a woman, virgin and free."

I.545-6: Daphne called to Jove, "Father help me. If your spirit resides in this river, help me now, if I have pleased you in the past, by changing my form and destroying my beauty that has been so great a curse to me."

III.611-14: Acoetes spoke, "I know not which, but a god you surely are. Whoever you are, be favorable, and grant us this one indulgence: I pray you let us go."

IV.11-21: "Bacchus they call you, and Bromius, and Lyaeus, born in fire, and Savior also, who alone was born of two mothers. Revered as a God in Nyseus, unshorn Thyoneus, joyful Lenaeus, the sower of grapes, Lord of Nocturnal Revelries, the Bullroarer, and by many more names, Liber, are You known among the Greeks. Adored for your eternal youth, a youth everlasting, you the most beautiful among the celestial Gods high above, to You are sacrifices made when You, without horns upon Your most virgin head, are near and lend us Your assistance. Arising victorious in the East, illuminating those distant lands faded in memory, to outermost India as far as the banks of the Ganges."

IV.31: Ismenides prayed, "Calm and mild, may you come to us."

IV.383-6: Hermaphrodite prayed, "Give generously to your son, Mother and Father, who has both your names, whoever in these springs would come as a man, let him leave as I am, only half a man, and touched by their waters, suddenly to become half a woman also."

V.618-20: "Help me, Diana, for I am overwhelmed. Diana, I am your servant, your arms-bearer, to whom you have often given your bow to carry, and who filled your quiver with arrows."

VI.261-3: "O Gods, who are common to all," prayed Ilioneus, uncertain of who to ask, "spare me!"

VI.280-5: "Feed upon our sadness, hard hearted Latona, delight in my mourning and be satisfied! May it satisfy the beast within you that I prepare funerals for seven sons. Exult in triumph as a conqueror over your enemies. Where is victory though, when a goddess stoops so low as to commit such a beastly act? The many Gods who rise above are as cruel to me, as they are beneficial to you; and yet, though I am bereft by so many funerals, still I am better than you."

VI.327-8: "Favour me, Goddess, lead me, and lend me your support."

VII.192-219: Medea prayed, "O Night, most faithful keeper of secrets, when each golden day the moon passes into the fiery stars, and you, triple-formed Hecate, aware of our ventures, come, divine Helper, as you have always come to our aid in magic spells and magic arts. O Tellus, Mother Earth, you who provide powerful herbs to us, be with us now. And you also, all you gods and goddesses of the air and mountains, of streams and lakes, gods of all sacred groves, all the gods and goddess of the night, come now to me. Many marvels we have worked together, whenever you wished, turning back rivers onto their source, or churning them to overflow their banks. Together we have calmed the violent seas. I drive off storm clouds, and I induce storms, the winds I drive away, and I call the winds to me. With your words and charms I make the viper?s throat to erupt. The very rocks and boulders are torn from the earth, enlivened and invigorated by my charms into a dance. Forests and mountains I set in motion and order them to tremble, and ghosts I make not only to moan and bellow but call them forth from the grave! And you, O Moon, I am able to draw down, or else diminish you in size by an eclipse. Even the chariot of Aurora may be halted with our charms at my desire, and pale the red sky through magic potions. The fire breathing bulls you bent their necks to the yoke for my beloved that he might plow the fields. In my beloved?s cruel battle, you surrendered the serpent-born to him, and put that rude guard to dream in sleep, so that he could lay claim to the golden fleece, and kept Graia, by deception, away in his city. Now grant your assistance in this work, too, as I make a potion to restore an old man and return him to the flower of his youth, turning back the years. Truly the signs in the stars neither sparkle in vain, nor in vain does my chariot, drawn by dragons, await. Come, gods and goddesses, attend me, and lend me your aid."

VII.615-21: "Jupiter, if what they say is not false, if You did indeed embrace my mother Aegina, if then, great Father, You are not ashamed to acknowledge me as Your son, either restore to me what is mine or else build me a sepulcher as well." Then Jupiter sent lightning and thunder as a sign that He had heard. "I accept this to be Your sign and I pray that it is a good omen of Your approval."

VII.627-8: "O Jupiter, best of fathers," Aeacus prayed, "grant me as many fellow citizens as before and fill this empty town."

VIII.350-1: Mopsus prayed, "O Phoebus, if I have cherished You in the past and worship You now, grant that You guide this javelin I throw to its mark."

VIII.481-90: Althaea prayed, "Triple Goddesses, Furies who hand out punishments, Eumenides, turn aside your holy gaze from me. By a nefarious act I avenge wicked deeds. This corpse is an atonement of the dead, a wicked deed to end wicked deeds, another funeral made on top of funerals, that all its many impious deeds may be atoned, and mourning pass from this house. Surely I am without gladness, for the death of my son, he who prevailed over the sons of my father Oeneus, will leave my husband Thestius childless. Better this, though, that there should be mourning for both. May you, shades and souls of my brothers, look upon this and rest easy that I have fulfilled my duty to you, and accept these preparations below, for the great burden I bear, this evil child of my womb."

VIII.594-602: Achelous prays for Perimele, "O Neptune, who reigns over the realm of wandering waves, Bearer of the Trident, come to our aid, I pray, and undo her father?s savagery. Neptune, grant her a safe haven, or else allow her to become a place herself, (to live forever as one of Your nymphs)."

IX.773-81: Telethusa and Iphis pray, "Isis, Queen of the Seas and Ports, who dwells in the land of the Pharaohs and in the seven mouths of the Nile delta, help us, I pray, and deliver us from our fears. Remember that once before You came to me in a dream. Goddess, I saw you in a procession, your followers each bearing a bronze sistrum. In this I saw a sign and my belief in you slowly grew more. Remember how I obeyed your commands, what was seen in the light of your vision, and that I warranted no punishment. Look upon two of your followers and what we perform in tribute to you. Help us, have pity on the two of us, and lend us your assistance."

X.274-6: "If, Gods, You are to linger a little longer, may it be, as I choose," Pygmalion dared to say, "my bride a virgin as white as my marble statue."

X.321-3: Myrrha prayed, "Gods, I pray, and piously ask, that you conspire with me in an unholy act to have my father, but if this is a crime, then prohibit this wickedness and oppose our desecration."

X.483-7: Myrrha pleaded, "O Gods, if any of you are able to endure my confession, I have deservedly earned and gladly accept my punishment. No longer allow the defilement I made, but extinguish this violation I have done to the living and the dead. Drive me out of the kingdom and change me into something else, and undo this worthless life I have led."

X.640-1: Hippomenes whispered, "Venus of Cytherea, I pray that you come to our venture, and that she gives herself to whom you help in passion."

XI.131-2: Midas cried out, "Forgive me, Father Bacchus, I was mistaken, but have pity, I pray, and command that I should be torn from your beauty."

XIII.598-9: Aurora asked, "Grant me solace at my son's death, and this also, ease a mother's wound, grant my son Memnon honours befitting a high god."

XIV.729-32: Iphis called out, "O Gods above, if indeed you see our exploits, proclaim my memory, with nothing more than my prayers to uphold it, make it be told forever, and grant this life that you take from me a time of fame."

XV.39-40: Myscelus prayed, "O Hercules, to whom twelve labors was given, help me, I pray, since you are witness to the accusations made against me."

XV.622-25: "Help spread before me now," Ovid spoke, "O Muses, whose divine inspiration the poets seek, for you know the truth and are not beguiled by prolonged antiquity, tell me from whence came Asculapius, the son of Coronis, to the city of Romulus, to become a divine presence on an isle surround by the noble Tiber."

XV.677-9: The Epidaurian priest told the Roman envoys, "Behold a god, it is your god! Whoever now is here, quiet your thoughts and attend. O most beautiful Asculapius, may this vision and your holy temple be a blessing to people."

XV.861-70: Ovid requested, "Gods hear me! I pray to you gods who led Aeneas and his companions through fire and sword from ruined Troy. Jupiter who sits high atop the Tarpeian Heights, Di Indigetes and Romulus, Founder of Rome, invincible Gradivus Quirinus, Father, and you Phoebus Apollo and Vesta of the Augustan house. By whatever names poets may rightly and piously call to you, I pray. Grant that the day of Augustus passing from our lives may yet be far off, and that when his day comes to leave this world over which he rules may he rise to the heavens to sit among the Holy Penates. Like his father Caesar before him, though absent from us, may he yet watch over us and grant us our prayers."
M Horatius Piscinus

Sapere aude!
User avatar
Horatius Piscinus
Curialis
Curialis
 
Posts: 1194
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 7:39 am
Location: Ohio, USA

Postby Horatius Piscinus on Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:03 pm

Prayers from Ovid's Fasti, Book I

I 65-70
Biformed Janus, source of years gliding by in silence, who alone among the immortal celestials sees his own back, come, attend our nobles as Your guests, those whose labors secure delightful pastimes for the earth, and peace on earth, peace on the seas. Attend and bless Your Senators and those of the people of Rome, the Quirites, and with a nod open Your gleaming gates onto peaceful precincts.


I 509-14:
Hail Gods who have answered our prayers and brought us to our journey?s end in this place. Hail to you land, destined to raise new gods up to the heavens. Hail rivers and springs of this hospitable land. Hail Naiad chorus of these forests and groves. May there be good auspices for me and my son; lucky is the foot that steps upon this riverbank.


I 671-96:
O Mothers of Fruitfulness, Earth and Ceres, please,
With salted spelt cakes offered for Your mother's woe,
In kind service have Earth and Ceres nurtured wheat,
She who gave grain life, She who gave us room to grow.

Pray then before the sheep are shorn their winter's fleece.

Consorts in labour who antiquity reformed,
Oaken acorn have You replaced by useful meal,
With boundless crops satisfy those who fields farmed,
O that they may by their tillage their reward seal.

May You grant tender seed abundant increase.

Let not icy cold enwrap our new shoots with snow,
While we sow let cloudless skies and fair winds blow.

When the seed lies sprouting, sprinkle with gentle rains,
May You ward off the feasting by birds from our grains.

You also, little ants, spare the grain we have sown,
More abundant will be your harvest when 'tis grown.
Meanwhile may our grain not blight by rough mildew,
Nor foul weather our seed blanch to a sickly hue.

Never may our grain be shriveled nor may it swell,
Without eye-stinging cockle, not by wild oats held.

Crops of wheat, of barley, of spelt grow on the farm,
Look now, Good Mothers, guard well the field,
The seasons change, the earth by Your breath grows warm,
With Your gentle touch may You increase our yield.

By Peace Ceres nursed, Her foster-child live in peace.


I 711-6:
Garland Your elegant coiffure with Actium?s laurel, Pax; be present and soften the whole world with Your gentleness. Let there be no enemies, no cause for triumphs. You will hand greater glory to our leaders than war can bring. Let the soldiers carry their arms only to check and repress arms. Let the trumpets sound only to announce the pomp that attends a celebration.
M Horatius Piscinus

Sapere aude!
User avatar
Horatius Piscinus
Curialis
Curialis
 
Posts: 1194
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 7:39 am
Location: Ohio, USA

Postby Horatius Piscinus on Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:05 pm

Prayers from Ovid's Fasti Book II

II 449-52
Thanks be to You, Lucina, who are named for this sacred grove, or else because it is You, Goddess, who brings life into the light of day. Kind Lucina, I pray that You spare pregnant girls from labor?s hardship, and gently birth ripened infants from their wombs.

II658-62
Holy Terminus, You define people and cities and nations within their boundaries. All land would be in dispute if without You. You seek no offices or anyone?s favour; no amount of gold can corrupt Your judgement. In good faith You preserve the legitimate claims to rural lands.

II 673-8
Terminus, You have lost Your freedom to move about, remain on guard, positioned where You were stationed, never to concede whatever claims a neighbor may make, lest You would appear to give an upper hand to men over vows witnessed by Jupiter, and whether ploughshares or mattocks give You a beating, proclaim, ?Yours is this land, that is his.?
M Horatius Piscinus

Sapere aude!
User avatar
Horatius Piscinus
Curialis
Curialis
 
Posts: 1194
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 7:39 am
Location: Ohio, USA

Postby Horatius Piscinus on Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:08 pm

Prayers from Ovid's Fasti Book III

III 73-6
Arbiter of arms, from whose blood I am believed to have been born, and many the proofs I will give that are accepted, after You we will begin the Roman year, from Your name, Father, we will name the first month of the year.

III 255-6
"You have given us light, Lucina," shout one and all, "attend our birthing prayers."

III 365-6
Jupiter, the time has come to make good Your promises, keep in good faith the vows You have spoken.

III 423-8
Gods of ancient Troy, the highest honour belongs to he who bore You; Aeneas carried his burden away from all foes, and now a priest descended from Aeneas touches the divine kindred powers. Vesta, watch over him whose hand tends the Holy Fire. Live well, fires. O live, I pray, undying flames.

III 714
Bacchus, favor the poet who sings at Your feast.

III 789-90
Turn Your head with complacent horns to me, Father Baccus, and give my genius a fair wind to follow
M Horatius Piscinus

Sapere aude!
User avatar
Horatius Piscinus
Curialis
Curialis
 
Posts: 1194
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 7:39 am
Location: Ohio, USA

Postby Horatius Piscinus on Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:16 pm

Prayers from Ovid's Fasti Book IV

IV 1
Nuturing Venus, Mother of the twin Loves, favour me.

IV 191
Grant, goddess, someone to consult.

IV 319-24
Nurturing Mother, fecund womb that bore the Gods, accept the prayers of this supplicant under one condition. I am said to be unchaste. If You condemn me, my confession I?ll make and accept death as penalty for the verdict of a goddess. But if the crime is absent, pledge Your security for my life, grant this one thing in Your action, and follow chaste goddess my chaste hands.

IV 747-77
Pray to Pales with warm milk, say: Be equally mindful of sheep and their masters. May my stables escape from harm. If I have grazed my flock in sacred pastures, or sat beneath a sacred tree, if unknowingly my sheep plunked their fodder from gravesites, if I have entered a sacred grove forbidden to men, and the nymphs and the half goat gods fled in fear at the sight of me, if my knife has pruned a shady bough to give a basket of leaves to an ailing sheep, grant indulgence of my offenses. Do not fault me for sheltering my herd in your sacred shrines when it was hailing heavily. Do not harm me for disturbing your pools; O Nymphs, pardon me for stirring up the river beds, the hooves of my flock turning your clear waters muddy. Goddess, may you placate for us the spirits of springs and fountains, and placate the freckles gods of every grove. Keep us from seeing the Dryads and Diana at Her bath, and the Fauns lying out in pastures at midday. Repel illness far away from us. Grant health to herds and men, and to the vigilant pack of guard dogs. May I never herd home less than were counted in the morning. May I never bewail the torn fleece of my sheep carried off by a wolf. May unjust famine remain away; may leaves of plant, herbs and grasses be in abundance. May there be plenty of water in which to bathe and to drink. May I squeeze richly full teats, may my cheese make me a profit, and the watery whey pass through my wicker sieves. May the ram be lustful, may the ewe conceive his seed, may my stables fill with many lambs. May my wool grow and not be abrasive to girls, but soft and suitable for their delicate hands. May what I pray for come true, and each year let us make grand cakes for Pales, the Lady of the Shepherds.

IV 827-32
Then king Romulus said, "As I found this city, be present, Jupiter, Father Mars, and Mother Vesta, and all gods who it is pious to summon, join together to attend. Grant that my work may rise with Your auspices. Grant that it may for many years hold dominion on earth, and assert its power over the east and west."

IV 893
To the Tyrrhenian king is vowed the enemy's vintage; You, Jupiter, will carry the unwatered wine from the cultivated vines of Latium.

IV 911-32
Spare Ceres' grain, O scabby Robigo, Let the tips of sprouting shoots gently quiver above rich soil. Let the crops grow, nurtured in turn as each star passes through the heavens, until full and ripe they are readied for the scythe. Your power is not light. What grain You touch, the farmer notes as lost. Wind and rain damage Ceres' grain enough, And by glistening white snow is burnt. Worst still if the stalks are damp when the Titan sears them, Your season of anger, fearful Goddess, when Sirius rises with the sun, Spare them, I pray. Away with scabrous hands from the harvest Do not harm the cultivated fields. The power to harm is enough. May You not grasp the crops, but embrace hard iron. Destroy first whatever else is able to destroy. Better to seize the destructive spear and sword, For they have no use, when the world puts forth quiet peace. Now may glimmer the light hoes and rough two-pronged hoes And let the arcing plow shine, polished from rural work. Corrupt iron weapons instead with Your rust And may any impulse to draw sword be thwarted By sheaths rusted from long neglect. Do not violate Ceres, but allow the farmer time To fulfill his vows for Your absence.
M Horatius Piscinus

Sapere aude!
User avatar
Horatius Piscinus
Curialis
Curialis
 
Posts: 1194
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 7:39 am
Location: Ohio, USA

Postby Horatius Piscinus on Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:21 pm

Prayers from Ovid's Fasti Book V

V 377-8
For an eternity may all of Ovid's songs flourish, I pray, Flora, shower my heart with Your gift.

V 435-7
After he has cleansed his hands with pure fountain water, he takes up the black beans in his mouth and turns, casting them back over his shoulder as he says, "This I send to you, Manes, with these beans I redeem me and mine." When nine times he has said this, then he says, "Manes of my forefathers, leave this place." He looks back, the rite of purification he thinks completed.

V 447-8
Advise me, Pleiad Maia's son, Mercurius, god of the venerated potent staff, often have You seen the court of Stygian Jove.

V 573-7
If, Father, my war is authorized by Vesta?s priestess, and whenever I prepare to take divine vengeance, Mars, be by my side and satiate cold steel with guilt?s blood, and lend Your favour to the better side. If I am victorious for You I'll build a shrine and call You Ultor, Mars the Avenger.

V 635-6
Tiber, teach me the truth, Your banks are older than the City, You are able to know better the rite?s origin.

V 663-70
Glorious Mercury, grandson of Atlas, be present here today as You were once upon Arcadia's hill, a Pleiad?s son by Jove. Arbiter in peace and in arms among the Gods of the heavens above and on earth, traveler on winged feet, You who enjoys the lyre and who takes pleasure in whoever glistens with the wrestler's ointment, You who has taught eloquent speech in all tongues, for You on the Ides of May, the Fathers once dedicated a sacred shrine near the Circus and named this day ever after to be Your feast day.

V681-90
(O Mercury) whether I have falsely called You to bear witness in the past, or deceitfully called upon Jupiter not to hear my empty promises, or if there is some other god or goddess that I knowingly deceived, wash away my past perjuries, wash away yesterday?s perfidious words, and allow me new perjuries to make when the new day dawns, and make the gods be indifferent to my lies. Grant that I may profit, grant joy in making a profit, grant that I may enjoy once more swindling my customers with deceitful words.

V 693
Reveal to me, I pray, for mine is the greater prayer, at what time the sun enters Gemini

V 716-8
Then Pollux said, "Gather in my words, Father, and grant that the heavenly abode You reserved for me alone may be shared, for then half of the whole shall be a greater gift."
M Horatius Piscinus

Sapere aude!
User avatar
Horatius Piscinus
Curialis
Curialis
 
Posts: 1194
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 7:39 am
Location: Ohio, USA

Postby Quintus Pomponius Atticus on Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:23 pm

Gratias ago for the interesting compilation, Marce, the number V already in your "pagan prayers" series, as I see on the ColRel's pages. This is really the kind of unique information that imo entices people on the internet to visit us.

And as you see, I have already robbed the last fragment to use it as my new signature :wink:

Vale !

Atticus
Quintus Pomponius Atticus
Praetor

"Ars longa, vita brevis" - Hippocrates
Quintus Pomponius Atticus
Senator
Senator
 
Posts: 500
Joined: Wed Aug 28, 2002 6:03 pm
Location: Belgica

Postby Horatius Piscinus on Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:47 pm

Salve Attice et gratias tibi ago

Sneaking in eh? Well, then here's the last part of ...

Prayers of Ovid's Fasti Book VI

VI 249-50
Vesta favor me. To You now our voices lift in praise as by this rite it is allowed that we may approach You.

VI 449-52
Forgive this sacrilege that I commit as I enter where no man may go. If this is a sin, may the punishment fall on me alone, and with myself damned, may Rome be absolved.

VI 517
Gods and men of this place, give succor to a pitiful mother.

VI 652
Come now, golden haired Minerva, to favor my the task I?ve begun.

VI 798
Muses Pierides, add refinement to what I have begun.
M Horatius Piscinus

Sapere aude!
User avatar
Horatius Piscinus
Curialis
Curialis
 
Posts: 1194
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 7:39 am
Location: Ohio, USA

Postby Horatius Piscinus on Thu Feb 19, 2004 9:00 pm

More prayers from Ovid


Ars Amore

I 30 Attend with favor, Mother of Love, the start of my enterprise.

II 14-5 This will be a work of art. Now, if ever before, I required Your favor, Venus Cytherrea, and that of Your son, and now, too, Erato, whose flea-ridden name exudes Love.


Amores

I 3.1-6 My prayer is just. May Venus hear all our many prayers. Take one who would serve You through long years, accept one who knows how to love with a pure heart.

II 13.7-18 O Isis, who dwells in Paraetonium and the genial fields of Canopus, in Memphis and palm-rich Pharos, and where the broad Nile swiftly disgorges into the salty sea through seven mouths, may Osiris always love your pious rites, may the serpent ever glide slowly nearby to bless Your altar gifts, and the horned Apis ever walk beside You in procession. Come hither, by a mere expression of Your eyes summon, and in one motion save us both, for You will grant life to my lady, and she to me. Often has she seated herself to worship You on the appointed days and had the eunuch priests purify her Nile waters dripping from boughs of laurel.

II 14.19-24 Ilithyia, You who are compassionate towards women in labor, who suffer with great pains in their womb, their bodies strained in slow birth of the hidden child, gently attend to her, Ilithyia, and favor my prayers. She is worthy of your aid, reward her with life, I will myself, dressed in pure white robes offer frankincense upon Your altar, I will myself carry votive gifts to lay at Your feet. And to Your altar?s inscription I shall add, ?By Naso, for Corinna saved.? Act in this manner, and receive the legend inscribed and the gifts in Your sanctuary.

II 14.43-4 Merciful Gods, pardon this one time mistake among all she may have made, that is all I ask, and punish her only if next time she is to blame.

III 2. 43 Keep silence and attend.

III 2.55-7 Winsome Venus, to You we pray, and to Your children with the mighty bow Assent to my undertaking, and may You change my lady?s mind, make her open to love.

III 10 3-14; 43-8 Flaxen haired Ceres, Your fine tresses wreathed with ears of wheat, why must your sacred rites inhibit our pleasures? Goddess, people everywhere praise for your munificence. No other goddess so lavishes men and women with everything good. In earlier times the uncouth peasant never roasted grains of wheat, never knew a threshing floor, but oak trees, those first oracles, provided them with gruel. Acorns, tender roots and herbs made their meal then. Ceres first taught seeds to ripen in the fields, taught how to follow Her with scythe against their golden hair, first broke the oxen to yoke and reveal the fertile earth beneath its curved blade.

O golden haired Ceres, just because lying apart was so sad for You., must I now, too, suffer so on Your holy day? Why must I be sad when You rejoice at the return of Your daughter whose realm is the lesser only to Juno's? A festival calls for singing and drinking and love-making. These are fit gifts to carry to the temples and please the gods.



Heroides

XIII 49-50 O Gods, I pray, spare us from sinister omens, and grant that my good husband shall return home from the wars to hang his arms before Jupiter Redux.

XV 57-8 I am Yours, Venus Ericina, who frequents the Sicanian Mountains, O Goddess look after your prophetic poet.


Remedia Amoris

75-6: From the very outset I pray to You, Apollo, inventor of music and of all the healing arts, come to my aid and this undertaking; bless it with Your laurel.

704: Come, health-bearing Apollo, come favoring my undertaking.


Nux

11-2: Did You, Liber, therefore often marvel at Your grapes; did Minerva Her olives?

151-2: If there is no cause to burn me, no reason to cut me down, spare me; thus may you finish the journey you have begun.
M Horatius Piscinus

Sapere aude!
User avatar
Horatius Piscinus
Curialis
Curialis
 
Posts: 1194
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 7:39 am
Location: Ohio, USA

Postby Horatius Piscinus on Thu Feb 19, 2004 9:02 pm

And now to complete Ovid

Ibis 67-127

Gods of land and sea, and you who hold a better place with Jove than lies between the poles, hurry here, I pray, come hither, to your fellow countryman and kin attend your minds and lend your backing to my endeavors. And you yourself, Tellus, Mother Earth, and you as well Seas, with your moving waves, and Air on high, receive my prayers; you stars, too, and you whose face is surrounded by light beams, and Luna, you who never shines with the same face as before, and you whose dark beauty fills the night, venerable Nox, and you Fates who with triple thumb spin the appointed thread, and you who loudly murmur through the terrors of infernal valleys, your gliding stream of waters unperjured, and you who is tortured by the tresses of snakes that bound your head and sit before the gloomy prison gates, and you as well, the lesser celestial gods, Fauns, Satyrs, Lares, river spirits and nymphs, and all semidivine beings, and lastly Gods, old and new, from the more ancient of times, born from Chaos, down to our own times, be present and witness as terrible charms are sung upon that unfaithful head, and grief and anger called upon to do their parts. Give your consent to all my desires, each in turn, and let no part of my vows fail. Whatever I pray, so may it be. May he think not by my words, but by the words of Ariadne, daughter of Pasiphae, and whatever punishment I should pass over, let him suffer these as well. Let him be filled with more misery than I can imagine. Neither less harmful may it be to a cursed name, nor vows move any less powerful gods to action. He it is that I devote with curses, whom the mind knows, Ibis, he who knows himself deserving of these curses. No delay is in me, as priest I perform the appointed vow. Whosoever you are who attends my rites, speak no words to abort their progress. Whosoever attends my rites, speak mournful words and, weeping, approach Ibis, run to him with left foot foremost and all evil omens, dressed in dark robes to conceal your bodies. And also you (who is about to be sacrificed), what doubts have you to lay hold of the sacred chaplets? Already, as you see for yourself, your funeral altar is prepared. The procession is prepared for you, let my doleful vows not be delayed further. Give your throat, fearful victim, to my knife.

May the earth deny you her fruits; may the streams deny you their waters, may the winds and breezes deny you breath. May the sun never warm you, nor Phoebus light your way, may the clear stars desert your eyes. May neither Vulcanus nor Aer be before you. May neither land nor sea offer you a path. May you ever wander an exile, a destitute alien on foreign borders, begging with trembling lips for a scanty supper. May neither your body nor your anguished mind ever be free of querulous pain. May night be more burdensome for you than day, and each day more so than the night before. May you ever remain miserable without anyone to lend you pity. May men and women take pleasure in your misery. May hatred come to your tears, and may you be thought worthy, who has borne so many evils, to carry even more. And may it be, though it is rare, accustomed to the defection of Her favor, may Fortuna become spiteful to you. May the cause not fall short, may abundant reasons not fail for you to desire death; yet may your life flee from your desire to die. May your narrow spirit long struggle in its torment, and torture you ever the while before death takes you. All these things will come to pass.
M Horatius Piscinus

Sapere aude!
User avatar
Horatius Piscinus
Curialis
Curialis
 
Posts: 1194
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 7:39 am
Location: Ohio, USA

Postby Lucius Tyrrhenus Garrulus on Mon Mar 29, 2004 8:06 am

M Moravi Horati Piscine wrote:Thanks be to You, Lucina, who are named for this sacred grove, or else because it is You, Goddess, who brings life into the light of day.
I've got a Latin question about this.

"who are named for this sacred grove" I guess refers to: lucus, n., grove, right?
But I thought her name was a variation of lux, lucis, f., light. Which might be confirmed by "who brings life into the light of day."

So... When Ovid writes "or else because it is You..." does this mean the Romans were unsure of the etymology of the name "Lucina"?
Am I reading this correctly?

VALETE BENE!
NOX EST PERPETVA VNA DORMIENDA
Lucius Tyrrhenus Garrulus
Eques
Eques
 
Posts: 158
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2003 4:39 am
Location: PA, USA

Postby Horatius Piscinus on Tue Mar 30, 2004 3:58 pm

Salve Luci Garrule

Ovid is referring to Diana Nemorensis, Diana named for Her sacred grove in Aricia, or you might say that the general term "nemus," meaning sacred grove, was derived from Diana's sacred grove. While at Rome Juno was known as Lucina and a goddes of childbirth, in Aricia, and especially at Her sanctuary, She was called Lucina and was the goddess of childbirth. Ovid tells a little more about the grove at Aricia in his Fasti where he says it was especially visited by women for this purpose. And no, the Romans were not always certain of the etymology of the names of deities, as Ovid plays with at times in the Fasti. Cicero too, in the De Natura Deorum, has one of his characters base part of his argument on etymology, in Liber II I think, but without much certainty, and another character is later critical of such arguments.

Vale optime
M Horatius Piscinus

Sapere aude!
User avatar
Horatius Piscinus
Curialis
Curialis
 
Posts: 1194
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 7:39 am
Location: Ohio, USA

Postby Horatius Piscinus on Tue Aug 24, 2004 5:36 pm

Salvete

Here is a new link that should interest som. The link was sent to me by Ericius. Ovid's Fasti in English

http://www.tonykline.co.uk/Browsepages/ ... tihome.htm

The index provided at the site looks useful, too.

Valete
M Horatius Piscinus

Sapere aude!
User avatar
Horatius Piscinus
Curialis
Curialis
 
Posts: 1194
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 7:39 am
Location: Ohio, USA


Return to Collegium Religionum et Philosophiarum

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests