Prayers to Di inferi

From NovaRoma
(Difference between revisions)
Jump to: navigation, search
(Piscinus no longer wants his material to appear on the NR website.)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{LanguageBar|{{PAGENAME}}}}
 
[[Category:Roman religion]]
 
Some odds and ends, prayers to some of the lesser gods.
 
  
==Faunus==
 
 
===Horace Carmen 3.8.1-8===
 
 
Amorous Faunus, from whom the Nymphs flee, step lightly across my
 
boundaries and sunny fields, and soon depart, leaving your blessing
 
on my young lambs and kids, and leveled tender shoots.
 
 
If gentle, at year's end a plumb kid I'll offer, with wine libations
 
liberally poured from the cups of Venus' devotees, and many sweet,
 
fragrant herbs I'll burn on your ancient altar.
 
 
 
===Virgil Aeneid 12.777-9 ===
 
 
Faunus, have pity, I pray, and you, opulent Earth, hold fast this
 
weapon, if always I have honored your worship in good faith.
 
 
==Hecate==
 
 
===Virgil Aeneid 4.609-12===
 
 
Nocturnal Hecate, who is called at the crossroads throughout the
 
City, and Avenging Dirae, and Elissa's gods of the dying, hear our
 
prayers, heed them, and direct your awful powers against those who
 
deserve it.
 
 
==Pales==
 
 
===Ovid Fasti 4.747===
 
 
Pray to Pales with warm milk, say: Be equally mindful of sheep and
 
their masters, Pales. 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
 
riverbeds, 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.
 
 
===Virgil Georgics 3.1-2===
 
 
Also you, great Pales, in memory of you we sing, shepherd of
 
Amphrysis, and all of you who come from forests and streams on mount
 
Lycaeus in Arcadia.
 
 
==Priapus==
 
 
===Petronius Satyricon 133===
 
 
Companion of Nymphs, companion of Bacchus, Priapus, Whom Dione
 
appointed God of lush forests, honored in Lesbos and verdant Thasos,
 
worshipped by the Lydians whose land is crossed by seven rivers and
 
who built a temple to You in Your Hypaepan homeland, come to me,
 
protector of Bacchus, beloved of Dryads, and hear my humble prayers.
 
+++
 
My prayer is this: Relieve me of a guilty conscious, forgive my
 
venial offense and when Fortuna next smiles on me, praises and
 
thanksgiving I shall offer You. A goat with gilt horns, the finest
 
of his herd, I shall bring to Your altars. The suckling piglet of a
 
sow I shall bring to Your altars. Foaming new wine, borne by young
 
men I shall bring to Your altars. All these offering in procession
 
shall I order to pass three times around Your shrine.
 
 
===Tibullus 1.1.17-18===
 
 
Red guardian, Priapus, placed within this fruitful garden, with your
 
fierce scythe frighten off the birds from this crop.
 
 
===Tibullus 1.4.1-6===
 
 
May leafy shade shelter you, Priapus, and neither the hot sun nor
 
snowy storms bring you harm. By what ingenuity or skill do you seize
 
beauties? Certainly not by gleaming beard, nor with stylish hair, as
 
naked you pass through the icy winds of winter, and naked still
 
beneath the Dogstar you remain through the parching sun of summer.
 
 
===Virgil Eclogues 7.33-36===
 
 
Priapus, a large cup of milk and this libum bread is all you can
 
expect each year, guardian of a pauper's garden. For a while yet
 
your image is carved in stone, but if at breeding time you make good
 
the herds, then of gold your image we shall make.
 
 
==Robigo==
 
 
===Ovid Fasti 4.911-32===
 
 
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.
 
 
==Terminus==
 
 
===Ovid Fasti 2.658-62; 2.673-8===
 
 
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.
 
 
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.
 

Revision as of 21:59, 10 March 2011

Personal tools