April 15th | Fastorum Liber Quartus: Aprilis
A • FORD • NP LUDI | XVII Kal. | IV.629-672, King Numa establishes the rites of the Fordicidia.
Tertia post Veneris cum lux surrexerit Idus,
pontifices, forda sacra litate bove. 630
forda ferens bos est fecundaque, dicta ferendo:
hinc etiam fetus nomen habere putant.
nunc gravidum pecus est, gravidae quoque semine terrae:
Telluri plenae victima plena datur.
pars cadit arce Iovis, ter denas curia vaccas 635
accipit et largo sparsa cruore madet.
ast ubi visceribus vitulos rapuere ministri
sectaque fumosis exta dedere focis,
igne cremat vitulos quae natu maxima virgo est,
luce Palis populos purget ut ille cinis. 640
rege Numa, fructu non respondente labori,
inrita decepti vota colentis erant.
nam modo siccus erat gelidis aquilonibus annus,
nunc ager assidua luxuriabat aqua:
saepe Ceres primis dominum fallebat in herbis, 645
et levis obsesso stabat avena solo,
et pecus ante diem partus edebat acerbos,
agnaque nascendo saepe necabat ovem.
silva vetus nullaque diu violata securi
stabat, Maenalio sacra relicta deo: 650
ille dabat tacitis animo responsa quieto
noctibus. hic geminas rex Numa mactat oves.
prima cadit Fauno, leni cadit altera Somno:
sternitur in duro vellus utrumque solo.
bis caput intonsum fontana spargitur unda, 655
bis sua faginea tempora fronde premit.
usus abest Veneris, nec fas animalia mensis
ponere, nec digitis anulus ullus inest.
veste rudi tectus supra nova vellera corpus
ponit, adorato per sua verba deo. 660
interea placidam redimita papavere frontem
Nox venit et secum somnia nigra trahit.
Faunus adest, oviumque premens pede vellera duro
edidit a dextro talia verba toro:
“morte boum tibi, rex, Tellus placanda duarum: 665
det sacris animas una iuvenca duas.”
excutitur terrore quies: Numa visa revolvit
et secum ambages caecaque iussa refert.
expedit errantem nemori gratissima coniunx
et dixit “gravidae posceris exta bovis.” 670
exta bovis gravidae dantur, fecundior annus
provenit, et fructum terra pecusque ferunt.
629 When the third day shall have dawned after the Ides of Venus, ye pontiffs, offer in sacrifice a pregnant (forda) cow. Forda is a cow with calf and fruitful, so called from ferendo (“bearing”): they think that fetus is derived from the same root. Now are the cattle big with young; the ground, too, is big with seed: to teeming Earth is given a teeming victim. Some are slain in the citadel of Jupiter; the wards (Curiae)1 get thrice ten cows, and are splashed and drenched with blood in plenty. But when the attendants have torn the calves from the bowels of their dams, and put the cut entrails on the smoking hearths, the eldest (Vestal) Virgin burns the calves in the fire, that their ashes may purify the people on the day of Pales.2 When Numa was king, the harvest did not answer to the labour bestowed on it; the husbandman was deceived, and his prayers were offered in vain. For at one time the year was dry, the north winds blowing cold; at another time the fields were rank with ceaseless rain; often at its first sprouting the crop balked its owner, and the light oats overran the choked soil, and the cattle dropped their unripe young before the time, and often the ewe perished in giving birth to her lamb. There was an ancient wood, long unprofaned by the axe, left sacred to the god of Maenalus.3 He to the quiet mind gave answers in the silence of the night. Here Numa sacrificed two ewes. The first fell in honour of Faunus, the second fell in honour of gentle Sleep: the fleeces of both were spread on the hard ground. Twice the king’s unshorn head was sprinkled with water from a spring; twice he veiled his brows with beechen leaves. He refrained from the pleasures of love; no flesh might be served up to him at table; he might wear no ring on his fingers. Covered with a rough garment he laid him down on the fresh fleeces after worshipping the god in the appropriate words. Meantime, her calm brow wreathed with poppies, Night drew on, and in her train brought darkling dreams. Faunus was come, and setting his hard hoof on the sheep’s fleeces uttered these words on the right side of the bed: “O King, thou must appease Earth by the death of two cows: let one heifer yield two lives in sacrifice.” Fear banished sleep: Numa pondered the vision, and revolved in his mind the dark sayings and mysterious commands. His wife,4 the darling of the grove, extricated him from his doubts and said, “What is demanded of thee are the inwards of a pregnant cow.” The inwards of a pregnant cow were offered; the year proved more fruitful, and earth and cattle yielded their increase.
M, the editor of Ovid Daily, has also written a translation of Liber IV.
See ii. 530 note, iii. 140.
See below, l. 721.
Pan.
Egeria.