Prayers to Hercules

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[[Category:Roman religion]]
 
==Anonymous Elegy to Maecenus 1.57-68==
 
  
O Hercules, energetic Alcidean, unwearied after so many labors, so
 
they recall, even so You laid aside Your cares and made delightful
 
play with a tender girl, having forgotten the Nemean lion, and also
 
the Erymanthian boar. What should come afterward? Twisting spindles
 
with Your thumbs, biting smooth the rough threads in Your mouth.
 
Lydian Omphale beat you for repeatedly knotting and breaking the
 
thread with Your rough hands. Often she would lead You as one of her
 
spinning maidens dressed in flowing robes. Your knotty club together
 
with the lion's skin was thrown down to the ground, and Amor danced
 
upon them with light feet. Who would have thought that would come
 
about when as a babe You strangled monstrous serpents with hands that
 
could barely grasp, or when You swiftly cut off the heads of the
 
Hydra as each grew back again? or conquered the savage steeds of
 
Diomede, or when alone You fought the three brothers who shared a
 
common body and contended with six hands? After the Lord of Olympus
 
routed the sons of Aloeus they say He rested on a bed until the
 
bright of day, and then sent His eagle in search and bring back
 
anyone worthy to lovingly serve Jove, until in an Idaean valley he
 
found You, handsome priest, and gently carried You away in his
 
talons.
 
 
==L. Apuleius Madaurensis, Metamorphoses sive Asinus aureus 9.21 ==
 
 
dignus hercules, dignus, qui et ista vincula conteras et insuper
 
carceris etiam tenebras perferas.
 
 
Fittingly, by Hercules, fittingly, if you let the time pass in
 
patience, your bonds, your imprisonment also you may endure.
 
 
==Corpus Inscriptiones Latinae I 1290==
 
 
Lucius Aufidius, son of Decius, deservedly devotes this gift to you,
 
Hercules, to pay an annual tithe (for the upkeep of your shrine). At
 
the same time he asks of You, You who are a holy God, to help him and
 
give him Your peace.
 
 
==Corpus Inscriptiones Latinae VI 312==
 
 
Te precor Alcide sacris / Invicte peractis / rite tuis laetus dona /
 
ferens meritis / haec tibi nostra potest / tenuis perferre camena /
 
nam grates dignas tu / potes efficere / sume libens simulacra / tuis
 
quae munera Cilo / aris urbanus dedicat / ipse sacris
 
 
==Corpus Inscriptiones Latinae VI 319==
 
 
Argive Hercules Victor, to you the urban praetor Veldumnianus Iunius
 
offers a gift in this place.
 
 
==P. Horatius Flaccus, Sermones 2.6==
 
 
Oh that some accident would discover to me an urn [full] of money! as
 
it did to him, who having found a treasure, bought that very ground
 
he before tilled in the capacity of an hired servant, enriched by
 
Hercules' being his friend. if what I have at present satisfies me
 
grateful, I supplicate you with this prayer: make my cattle fat for
 
the use of their master, and everything else, except my genius:3 and,
 
as you are wont, be present as my chief guardian. Wherefore, when I
 
have removed myself from the city to the mountains and my castle,
 
(what can I polish, preferably to my satires and prosaic muse?)
 
neither evil ambition destroys me, nor the heavy south wind, nor the
 
sickly autumn, the gain of baleful Libitina.
 
 
==P. Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses 15.39-40==
 
 
O Hercules, to whom twelve labors was given, help me, I pray, since
 
you are witness to the accusations made against me.
 
 
==Aulus Persius Flaccus, Satura 2.10-15==
 
 
'o si
 
sub rastro crepet argenti mihi seria dextro
 
Hercule! pupillumue utinam, quem proximus heres
 
inpello, expungam; nam et est scabiosus et acri
 
bile tumet. Nerio iam tertia conditur uxor.'
 
 
==T. Maccius Plautus, Asinaria 467==
 
 
By Hercules, may all the gods damn him.
 
 
==T. Maccius Plautus, Curculio 358 ==
 
 
Be silent a while. He threw a most losing cast. I took up the dice,
 
and invoked Hercules as my genial patron; I threw a first-rate cast,
 
and pledged him in a bumping cup; in return he drank it off, reclined
 
his head, and fell fast asleep. I slyly took away from him the ring,
 
and took my legs quietly from off the couch, so that the Captain
 
mightn't perceive it. The servants enquired whither I was going; I
 
said that I was going whither persons when full are wont to go. When
 
I beheld the door, at once on the instant I took myself away from the
 
place.
 
 
[Most losing cast: When playing with the "tali," or "knucklebone
 
dice," with only four marked sides, they used sets of four. "Volturii
 
quatuor" (literally, "the four vultures") was the most unlucky throw
 
of all, and is supposed to have been four ones. The first-rate cast:
 
The best throw with the "tali" was called "Venus" or "Venereus
 
jactus," when the dice turned up 2, 3, 4, and 5. As it was by this
 
throw that the Romans chose the King of the Feast, it received the
 
name of "Basilicus," "the king's throw."]
 
 
==T. Maccius Plautus, Bacchides 892==
 
 
So may Jupiter, Juno, Ceres, Minerva, Spes, Latona, Ops, Virtus,
 
Venus, Castor, Pollux, Mars, Mercury, Hercules, Summanus; the Sun,
 
Saturn, and all the Deities, prosper me, he neither reclines with
 
her, nor walks, nor kisses, nor does that which is wont to be
 
reported.
 
 
==Propertius Eligiae 4.9.71-4==
 
 
Because Your hands have purified the Earth, the Sabines of Cures
 
called You Sancus, The Holy One. Hail Father Sancus, whom austere
 
Juno now favors. O Sancus, may You wish to be with me and Your
 
spirit be in my books.
 
 
==Silius Italicus Punica 1.505-7==
 
 
Hercules, Founder of our city (Saguntum), you who are called Alcidus,
 
in whose footsteps we now reside on this hallowed earth, avert the
 
threatening storms from our land.
 
 
==Statius Silvae 3.1.23-28==
 
 
Come hither, Hercules, who, now free of your obligations, may choose
 
whether to live in your native Argos and spurn death as Eurystheus
 
buried in his tomb, or whether your virtue has won you a place among
 
the stars beneath the throne of your father Jupiter, and Hebe, better
 
than Phrygian Ganymede, with her robe girded, offers you a cup of
 
blessed nectar to drink, come hither, and grace this newly dedicated
 
temple with the presence of your genius.
 
 
==Statius Silvae 3.1.154-58==
 
 
Why not arouse yourself, Hercules, to come and to graciously honour
 
these feats of the festival we hold in your name; whether to split
 
the clouds with your discus, or send your javelin speeding more
 
swiftly than Zephyrs, or whether it please you to lock arms in a
 
Libyan wrestling competition, indulge our ceremonies with your divine
 
presence.
 
 
==Virgil Aeneid 8.301-2==
 
 
Hail, Hercules, true son of Jove, an added Glory for the Gods are
 
you. Come now, and dance at your holy rites with skillful feet.
 

Revision as of 20:47, 13 March 2011

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