NovaRoma - User contributions [en]

Prayers

2014-05-14T23:34:18Z

Lucia Livia Plauta:

This was a page with links to Romans prayers collected by Marcus Horatius Piscinus, former consul and Pontifex Maximus of nova Roma, who has been expelled on trumped-up charges.

Since I find it unethical to continue using his material on this site, I will keep removing any of his material which appears on this site without his permission.

Your former citizen:
Lucia Livia Plauta

Prayers to Magna Deum Mater Idae

2014-05-14T23:28:08Z

Lucia Livia Plauta: Replaced content with "It is unethical to use material added by Marcus Horatius Piscinus, ex consul and Pontifex Maximus of Nova Roma, after expelling him and condemning him to "Damnatio Memoriae"...."

It is unethical to use material added by Marcus Horatius Piscinus, ex consul and Pontifex Maximus of Nova Roma, after expelling him and condemning him to "Damnatio Memoriae".

If you want to have prayers in this page, please make the effort of adding your own, and not just restoring a previous version of this page.

Lucia Livia Plauta

Prayers to Lares, Penates and Manes

2014-05-14T23:27:08Z

Prayers to Di inferi

2014-05-14T23:26:16Z

Prayers to Vulcanus

2014-05-14T23:25:29Z

Lucia Livia Plauta:

Prayers to Vesta

2014-05-14T23:24:46Z

Lucia Livia Plauta:

Prayers to Venus

2014-05-14T23:24:07Z

Prayers to Neptunus

2014-05-14T23:23:32Z

Prayers to Minerva

2014-05-14T23:22:47Z

Prayers to Mars

2014-05-14T23:22:05Z

Prayers to Mercurius

2014-05-14T23:21:26Z

Prayers to Pater Liber

2014-05-14T23:20:48Z

Prayers to Jupiter

2014-05-14T23:19:46Z

Prayers to Isis

2014-05-14T23:18:49Z

Prayers to Diana

2014-05-14T23:18:02Z

Prayers to Janus

2014-05-14T23:17:04Z

Prayers to Juno

2014-05-14T23:16:11Z

Prayers to Hercules

2014-05-14T23:15:07Z

Prayers to Ceres

2014-05-14T23:13:08Z

Prayers to Aesculapius

2014-05-14T23:12:03Z

Lucia Livia Plauta:

Prayers to Apollo

2014-05-14T23:11:09Z

Prayers to Tellus

2014-05-14T23:09:23Z

Arbor felix

2012-05-29T22:39:47Z

Lucia Livia Plauta: Ne akarjál kiszúrni velünk!

{{LanguageBar|{{PAGENAME}}}}

'''The following material is from a post by ex Pontifex Maximus M. Moravius Piscinus Horatianus made on the Religio Romana mailing list on Aug 27, 2008.'''

'''The content was removed by me (Lucia Livia Plauta) in March 2011 after M. Moravius Piscinus was expelled from Nova Roma because he did not wish his work to be appropriated by an organization which doesn't appreciate him. '''

'''It was restored on May 29, 2012 by Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus, who could have made the effort of changing some words, and maybe correcting the one spelling mistake, but instead chose to restore the content while removing the reference to its author, who was condemned in NR to damnatio memoriae.'''

"Trees were once the sacred precincts of the Gods, and, following
ancient established rituals, country places even now dedicate an
outstandingly tall tree to a God. Even images of shining gold and
ivory are worshipped less by us than forests and their silence.
Different types of trees are dedicated to their own deities and these
relationships are kept for all time. For example, the Italian holm
oak is sacred to Jupiter, the laurel to Apollo, the olive to Minerva,
the myrtle to Venus, and the poplar to Hercules. We also believe that
the Silvani and Fauni and various goddesses are, as it were, assigned
to forests by heaven (G. Plinius Secundus, Hist. Nat. 12.3)."

The first sacred shrine to be dedicated at Rome was said to be that
of Jupiter Feretrius (Livy 1.10.7). This was "an oak which the
shepherds held sacred" on the Capitoline Hill. Offerings and votives
were hung from trees, "an oak hung with horns, a beech with animal
skins… a tree trunk in which a hatchet has carved a divine effigy
(Florides 1.3-4)." Apuleius mentioned similar rustic shrines and
Horace dedicated a shrine to Diana beneath a pine tree overhanging
his villa (Carmina 3.22.1-8). An estate would hold several such
shrines, while others were near boundary markers between neighbors,
or else near crossroads. "I devoutly worship the tree stump in the
depths of the countryside or an ancient stone garlanded with flowers
where paths cross (Tibullus 1.1.11)."

Among the many taboos placed on the flamen Dialis, one was that "the
nail parings of the Dialis and his hair trimmings are buried in earth
under a fruitful tree (Gellius, Noctes Atticae X.15.1-25)."

"The beneficial trees (felices arbores) are thought to be the oak,
the forest oak, holm oak, cork tree, beech tree, hazel, service berry
tree, white fig, pear tree, apple tree, the vine, the plum tree,
cornel (red dogwood), cherry tree, and the Italian lotus (Macrobius,
Saturnalia 3.20.2)." The iurglans> was the beechnut, or chestnut of
Jupiter, whose fruit "they esteemed worthy of the Gods (Gavius
Bassius, GRF fr. 5)."

Other trees were dedicated to the Di inferi and thus were to be
avoided as "arbores infelices". These are various ferns, and the
black fig, and whatever other trees have black branches or black
fruits. Others are acrifolium, the wild forest pears, red plums and
others that were thought to bring forth evil omens and bad prodigies.

Certain trees were regarded as protective, purifying, or beneficial.
The whitethorn was carried in bridal processions as one means to
protect the bride from the evil eye of onlookers, and was later hung
over the lintel of the groom's house as a means of guarding against
evil influences. The "Sabine herb" mentioned in marriages rites and
rites of purification was a variety of juniper. The groom and bride
would exchange boughs of pine that they would then place in the fire
atop an altar as an offering to Juno. Certain religious articles
were required to be made from specific trees. The fetiales carried
spears made of cornel (Livy I.32.6-14). The fasces were rods made of
elm (Plautus Asinaria 262-4). The lituus of augures was made of a
single tree branch, without knots, and having a natural curl, taken
from one of the "fruitful" trees (arbores felices)mentioned by
Veranius, in Ex Pontificalum Quaestionum Libris, and quoted by
Macrobius.

The molucum refers to the special manner in which tree limbs were
stacked to form the focus on an altar. They were placed one on
another, moving is a clockwise direction to build up a square tower.
Certain woods were preferred, depending on the deity for who the
sacrifices were made. In the case of sacrifices to the Di inferi,
arbores infelices might be used, but on a round altar often set down
in a pit, with the wood leaning up on one another in a circle, like a
camp fire. The molucum was used only for the celestial Gods. To use
arbores infelices on an altar to the celestial Gods would render the
altar impure and unusable until it could be purified. Appropriate
firewood would be selected according to which deity was being invoked.

There was the idea, as Pliny mentions, that certain types of trees
held the numen of a particular deity. Bringing a tree limb into a
shrine or house, or into a ritual, therefore meant bringing along the
God's or Goddess' numen as well. So care was made on which trees to
use in any ritual matter. Wooden images of the Gods were
specifically made of an appropriate wood for this very reason, that
the numen natural to the tree might attract a more powerful numen of
the deity and thus bless whatever place in which it was placed. A
number of amulets, charms and statues made of appropriate woods and
herbs were placed throughout a house for the same reason, to fill it
with numina of the Gods. Care was especially given to the windows of
rooms where children slept, charms hung over them to ward off evil.
Pliny's Natural History is filled with information on such charms,
and a great deal more about the Romans' use of trees.

[[Category:Roman religion]]

Prayers to Apollo

2011-03-13T20:54:48Z