April 21st | Fastorum Liber Quartus: Aprilis
G • PAR • NP | XV Kal. | IV.721-862, on the birthdate of Rome, Ovid relates the rites and placation for the goddess Pales, Romulus' foundation of the Rome, and Remus' subsequent demise.
Nox abiit, oriturque Aurora. Parilia poscor:
non poscor frustra, si favet alma Pales.
alma Pales, faveas pastoria sacra canenti,
prosequor officio si tua festa meo.
certe ego de vitulo cinerem stipulasque fabalis 725
saepe tuli plena, februa casta, manu:
certe ego transsilui positas ter in ordine flammas,
udaque roratas laurea misit aquas.
mota dea est operique favet: navalibus exit
puppis, habent ventos iam mea vela suos. 730
i, pete virginea, populus, suffimen ab ara:
Vesta dabit, Vestae munere purus eris.
sanguis equi suffimen erit vitulique favilla,
tertia res durae culmen inane fabae.
pastor, oves saturas ad prima crepuscula lustra: 735
unda prius spargat, virgaque verrat humum,
frondibus et fixis decorentur ovilia ramis,
et tegat ornatas longa corona fores.
caerulei fiant puro de sulpure fumi,
tactaque fumanti sulpure balet ovis. 740
ure mares oleas taedamque herbasque Sabinas,
et crepet in mediis laurus adusta focis.
libaque de milio milii fiscella sequatur:
rustica praecipue est hoc dea laeta cibo.
adde dapes mulctramque suas, dapibusque resectis 745
silvicolam tepido lacte precare Palem.
“consule” dic “pecori pariter pecorisque magistris:
effugiat stabulis noxa repulsa meis.
sive sacro pavi sedive sub arbore sacra,
pabulaque e bustis inscia carpsit ovis: 750
si nemus intravi vetitum, nostrisve fugatae
sunt oculis nymphae semicaperque deus:
si mea falx ramo lucum spoliavit opaco,
unde data est aegrae fiscina frondis ovi:
da veniam culpae. nec, dum degrandinet, obsit 755
agresti fano supposuisse pecus,
nec noceat turbasse lacus. ignoscite, nymphae,
mota quod obscuras ungula fecit aquas.
tu, dea, pro nobis fontes fontanaque placa
numina, tu sparsos per nemus omne deos. 760
nec Dryadas nec nos videamus labra Dianae,
nec Faunum, medio cum premit arva die.
pelle procul morbos; valeant hominesque gregesque,
et valeant vigiles, provida turba, canes.
neve minus multos redigam, quam mane fuerunt, 765
neve gemam referens vellera rapta lupo.
absit iniqua fames: herbae frondesque supersint,
quaeque lavent artus quaeque bibantur aquae.
ubera plena premam, referat mihi caseus aera,
dentque viam liquido vimina rara sero. 770
sitque salax aries, conceptaque semina coniunx
reddat, et in stabulo multa sit agna meo.
lanaque proveniat nullas laesura puellas,
mollis et ad teneras quamlibet apta manus.
quae precor eveniant, et nos faciemus ad annum 775
pastorum dominae grandia liba Pali.”
his dea placanda est: haec tu conversus ad ortus
dic quater et vivo perlue rore manus.
tum licet apposita, veluti cratere, camella
lac niveum potes purpureamque sapam; 780
moxque per ardentes stipulae crepitantis acervos
traicias celeri strenua membra pede.
expositus mos est: moris mihi restat origo:
turba facit dubium coeptaque nostra tenet.
omnia purgat edax ignis vitiumque metallis 785
excoquit: idcirco cum duce purgat ovis.
an, quia cunctarum contraria semina rerum
sunt duo discordes, ignis et unda, dei,
iunxerunt elementa patres aptumque putarunt
ignibus et sparsa tangere corpus aqua? 790
an, quod in his vitae causa est, haec perdidit exul,
his nova fit coniunx, haec duo magna putant?
vix equidem credo: sunt qui Phaëthonta referri
credant et nimias Deucalionis aquas.
pars quoque, cum saxis pastores saxa feribant, 795
scintillam subito prosiluisse ferunt;
prima quidem periit, stipulis excepta secunda est:
hoc argumentum flamma Parilis habet?
an magis hunc morem pietas Aeneïa fecit,
innocuum victo cui dedit ignis iter? 800
num tamen est vero propius, cum condita Roma est,
transferri iussos in nova tecta Lares
mutantesque domum tectis agrestibus ignem
et cessaturae supposuisse casae,
per flammas saluisse pecus, saluisse colonos? 805
quod fit natali nunc quoque, Roma, tuo.
Ipse locus causas vati facit. Urbis origo
venit. ades factis, magne Quirine, tuis!
iam luerat poenas frater Numitoris, et omne
pastorum gemino sub duce volgus erat. 810
contrahere agrestes et moenia ponere utrique
convenit: ambigitur, moenia ponat uter.
“nil opus est” dixit “certamine” Romulus “ullo:
magna fides avium est, experiamur aves.”
res placet. alter adit nemorosi saxa Palati, 815
alter Aventinum mane cacumen init.
sex Remus, hic volucres bis sex videt ordine. pacto
statur, et arbitrium Romulus urbis habet.
apta dies legitur, qua moenia signet aratro.
sacra Palis suberant: inde movetur opus. 820
fossa fit ad solidum, fruges iaciuntur in ima
et de vicino terra petita solo.
fossa repletur humo, plenaeque imponitur ara.
et novus accenso fungitur igne focus. 825
inde premens stivam designat moenia sulco;
alba iugum niveo cum bove vacca tulit.
vox fuit haec regis: “condenti, Iuppiter, urbem
et genitor Mavors Vestaque mater, ades;
quosque pium est adhibere deos, advertite cuncti.
auspicibus vobis hoc mihi surgat opus. 830
longa sit huic aetas domitaeque potentia terrae,
sitque sub hac oriens occiduusque dies.”
ille precabatur, tonitru dedit omina laevo
Iuppiter, et laevo fulmina missa polo.
augurio laeti iaciunt fundamina cives, 835
et novus exiguo tempore murus erat.
hoc Celer urget opus, quem Romulus ipse vocarat,
“sint,” que “Celer, curae” dixerat “ista tuae.
neve quis aut muros aut factam vomere fossam
transeat: audentem talia dede neci.” 840
quod Remus ignorans humiles contemnere muros
coepit et “his populus” dicere “tutus erit?”
nec mora, transsiluit. rutro Celer occupat ausum;
ille premit duram sanguinulentus humum.
haec ubi rex didicit, lacrimas introrsus obortas 845
devorat et clausum pectore volnus habet.
flere palam non volt exemplaque fortia servat,
“sic” que “meos muros transeat hostis” ait.
dat tamen exsequias nec iam suspendere fletum
sustinet, et pietas dissimulata patet; 850
osculaque applicuit posito suprema feretro
atque ait “invito frater adempte, vale!”
arsurosque artus unxit. fecere, quod ille,
Faustulus et maestas Acca soluta comas.
tum iuvenem nondum facti flevere Quirites; 855
ultima plorato subdita flamma rogo est.
urbs oritur (quis tunc hoc ulli credere posset?)
victorem terris impositura pedem.
cuncta regas et sis magno sub Caesare semper,
saepe etiam plures nominis huius habe; 860
et quotiens steteris domito sublimis in orbe,
omnia sint umeris inferiora tuis.
721 The night has gone, and Dawn comes up. I am called upon to sing of the Parilia,1 and not in vain shall be the call, if kindly Pales favours me. O kindly Pales, favour me when I sing of pastoral rites, if I pay my respects to thy festival. Sure it is that I have often brought with full hands the ashes of the calf and the beanstraws, chaste means of expiation. Sure it is that I have leaped over the flames ranged three in a row, and the moist laurel-bough has sprinkled water on me. The goddess is moved and favours the work I have in hand. My bark is launched; now fair winds fill my sails.
731 Ye people, go fetch materials for fumigation from the Virgin’s altar. Vesta will give them; by Vesta’s gift ye shall be pure. The materials for fumigation will be the blood of a horse and the ashes of a calf; the third thing will be the empty stalks of hard beans.2 Shepherd, do thou purify thy well-fed sheep at fall of twilight; first sprinkle the ground with water and sweep it with a broom. Deck the sheepfold with leaves and branches fastened to it; adorn the door and cover it with a long festoon. Make blue smoke with pure sulphur, and let the sheep, touched with the smoking sulphur, bleat. Burn wood of male olives and pine and savines, and let the singed laurel crackle in the midst of the hearth. And let a basket of millet accompany cakes of millet; the rural goddess particularly delights in that food. Add viands and a pail of milk, such as she loves; and when the viands have been cut up, pray to sylvan Pales, offering warm milk to her. Say, “O, take thought alike for the cattle and the cattle’s masters; ward off from my stalls all harm, O let it flee away! If I have fed my sheep on holy ground, or sat me down under a sacred tree, and my sheep unwittingly have browsed on graves; if I have entered a forbidden grove, or the nymphs and the half-goat god have been put to flight at sight of me; if my pruning-knife has robbed a sacred copse of a shady bough, to fill a basket with leaves for a sick sheep, pardon my fault. Count it not against me if I have sheltered my flock in a rustic shrine till the hail left off, and may I not suffer for having troubled the pools: forgive it, nymphs, if the trampling of hoofs has made your waters turbid. Do thou, goddess, appease for us the springs and their divinities; appease the gods dispersed through every grove. May we not see the Dryads, nor Diana’s baths, nor Faunus,3 when he lies in the fields at noon. Drive far away diseases: may men and beasts be hale, and hale too the sagacious pack of watch-dogs. May I drive home my flocks as numerous as they were at morn, nor sigh as I bring back fleeces snatched from the wolf. Avert dire hunger. Let grass and leaves abound, and water both to wash and drink. Full udders may I milk; may my cheese bring me in money; may the sieve of wicker-work give passage to the liquid whey; lustful be the ram, and may his mate conceive and bear, and many a lamb be in my fold. And let the wool grow so soft that it could not fret the skin of girls nor chafe the tenderest hands. May my prayer be granted, and we will year by year make great cakes for Pales, the shepherds’ mistress.” With these things is the goddess to be propitiated; these words pronounce four times, facing the east, and wash thy hands in living dew. Then mayest thou set a wooden bowl to serve as mixer, and mayest quaff the snow-white milk and purple must; anon leap with nimble foot and straining thews across the burning heaps of crackling straw.
783 I have set forth the custom; it remains for me to tell its origin. The multitude of explanations creates a doubt and thwarts me at the outset. Devouring fire purges all things and melts the dross from out the metals; therefore it purges the shepherd and the sheep. Or are we to suppose that, because all things are composed of opposite principles, fire and water—those two discordant deities—therefore our fathers did conjoin these elements and thought meet to touch the body with fire and sprinkled water? Or did they deem these two important because they contain the source of life, the exile loses the use of them, and by them the bride is made a wife?4 Some suppose (though I can hardly do so) that the allusion is to Phaethon and Deucalion’s flood. Some people also say that when shepherds were knocking stones together, a spark suddenly leaped forth; the first indeed was lost, but the second was caught in straw; is that the reason of the flame at the Parilia? Or is the custom rather based on the piety of Aeneas, whom, even in the hour of defeat, the fire allowed to pass unscathed? Or is it haply nearer the truth that, when Rome was founded, orders were given to transfer the household gods to the new houses, and in changing homes the husbandmen set fire to their country houses and to the cottages they were about to abandon, and that they and their cattle leaped through the flames? Which happens even to the present time on the birthday of Rome.5
807 The subject of itself furnishes a theme for the poet. We have arrived at the foundation of the City. Great Quirinus, help me to sing thy deeds. Already the brother of Numitor6 had suffered punishment, and all the shepherd folk were subject to the twins. The twins agreed to draw the swains together and found a city; the doubt was which of the two should found it. Romulus said, “There needs no contest. Great faith is put in birds; let’s try the birds.” The proposal was accepted. One of the two betook him to the rocks of the wooded Palatine; the other hied at morn to the top of the Aventine. Remus saw six birds; Romulus saw twice six, one after the other: they stood by their compact, and Romulus was accorded the government of the city. A suitable day was chosen on which he should mark out the line of the walls with the plough., The festival of Pales was at hand; on that day the work began.7 A trench was dug down to the solid rock; fruits of the earth were thrown into the bottom of it, and with them earth fetched from the neighbouring soil. The trench was filled up with mould, and on the top was set an altar, and a fire was duly lit on a new hearth. Then pressing on the plough-handle he drew a furrow to mark out the line of the walls: the yoke was borne by a white cow and snow-white steer. The king spoke thus: “O Jupiter, and Father Mavors, and Mother Vesta, stand by me as I found the city! O take heed, all ye gods whom piety bids summon! Under your auspices may this my fabric rise! May it enjoy long life and dominion over a conquered world! May East and West be subject unto it!” So he prayed. Jupiter vouchsafed omens by thunder on the left and lightnings flashing in the leftward sky. Glad at the augury, the citizens laid the foundations, and in a short time the new wall stood. The work was urged on by Celer, whom Romulus himself had named and said, “Celer, be this thy care; let no man cross the walls nor the trench which the share hath made: who dares to do so, put him to death.” Ignorant of this, Remus began to mock the lowly walls and say, “Shall these protect the people?” And straightway he leaped across them. Instantly Celer struck the rash man with a shovel. Covered with blood, Remus sank on the stony ground. When the king heard of this, he smothered the springing tears and kept his grief locked up within his breast. He would not weep in public; he set an example of fortitude, and “So fare,” quoth he, “the foe who shall cross my walls.” Yet he granted funeral honours, and could no longer bear to check his tears, and the affection which he had dissembled was plain to see. When they set down the bier, he gave it a last kiss, and said, “Snatched from thy brother, loath to part, brother, farewell!” With that he anointed the body before committing it to the flames. Faustulus and Acca, her mournful hair unbound, did the same. Then the Quirites, though not yet known by that name, wept for the youth, and last of all a light was put to the pyre, wet with their tears. A city arose destined to set its victorious foot upon the neck of the whole earth; who at that time could have believed in such a prophecy? Rule the universe, O Rome, and mayest thou ever be subject to great Caesar, and mayest thou often have several of that name, and whensoe’er thou standest sublime in a conquered world, may all else reach not up to thy shoulders!
M, the editor of Ovid Daily, has also written a translation of Liber IV.
It was dangerous to disturb Pan (Faunus) at midday, or to see satyrs and nymphs at their gambols. He alludes also to the story of Actaeon and Diana, Metam. iii. 161.
Fire and water were supposed in combination to create life. The exiled man was debarred from fire and water (“igni atque aqua interdictus”); and these two were presented to the bride as she entered her new home.
The Parilia.
Amulius. See iii. 67.