April 23rd | Fastorum Liber Quartus: Aprilis
A • VIN • NP | IX Kal. | IV.863-900, Ovid tells the story of the battle between Aeneas and Mezentius that led to the establishment of the Vinalia festival.
Dicta Pales nobis, idem Vinalia dicam;
una tamen media est inter utramque dies.
numina, volgares, Veneris celebrate, puellae: 865
multa professarum quaestibus apta Venus.
poscite ture dato formam populique favorem,
poscite blanditias dignaque verba ioco,
cumque sua dominae date grata sisymbria myrto
tectaque composita iuncea vincla rosa. 870
templa frequentari Collinae proxima portae
nunc decet, a Siculo nomina colle tenent;
utque Syracusas Arethusidas abstulit armis
Claudius et bello te quoque cepit, Eryx,
carmine vivacis Venus est translata Sibyllae, 875
inque suae stirpis maluit urbe coli.
cur igitur Veneris festum Vinalia dicant,
quaeritis, et quare sit Iovis ista dies?
Turnus an Aeneas Latiae gener esset Amatae,
bellum erat: Etruscas Turnus adorat opes. 880
clarus erat sumptisque ferox Mezentius armis
et vel equo magnus vel pede maior erat;
quem Rutuli Turnusque suis adsciscere temptat
partibus. haec contra dux ita Tuscus ait:
“stat mihi non parvo virtus mea: volnera testor 885
armaque, quae sparsi sanguine saepe meo.
qui petis auxilium, non grandia divide mecum
praemia, de lacubus proxima musta tuis.
nulla mora est operae: vestrum est dare, vincere nostrum.
quam velit Aeneas ista negata mihi!” 890
adnuerant Rutuli. Mezentius induit arma,
induit Aeneas alloquiturque Iovem:
“hostica Tyrrheno vota est vindemia regi:
Iuppiter, e Latio palmite musta feres!
vota valent meliora. cadit Mezentius ingens 895
atque indignanti pectore plangit humum.
venerat Autumnus calcatis sordidus uvis:
redduntur merito debita vina Iovi.
dicta dies hinc est Vinalia: Iuppiter illam
vindicat et festis gaudet inesse suis. 900
863 I have told of Pales, I will now tell of the festival of the Vinalia; but there is one day interposed between the two. Ye common wenches, celebrate the divinity of Venus: Venus favours the earnings of ladies of a liberal profession. Offer incense and pray for beauty and popular favour; pray to be charming and witty; give to the Queen her own myrtle and the mint she loves, and bands of rushes hid in clustered roses. Now is the time to throng her temple next the Colline gate; the temple takes its name from the Sicilian hill. When Claudius carried Arethusian Syracuse.1 by force of arms, and captured thee, too, Eryx, in war, Venus was transferred to Rome in obedience to an oracle of the long-lived Sibyl, and chose to be worshipped in the city of her own offspring. You ask, Why then do they call the Vinalia a festival of Venus? And why does that day belong to Jupiter? There was war to decide whether Turnus or Aeneas should be the husband of Latin Amata’s daughter: Turnus sued the help of the Etruscans. Mezentius was famous and a haughty man-at-arms; mighty was he on horseback, but mightier still on foot. Turnus and the Rutulians attempted to win him to their side. To these overtures the Tuscan chief thus replied: “My valour costs me dear. Witness my wounds and those weapons which oft I have bedabbled with my blood. You ask my help: divide with me the next new wine from your vats surely no great reward. Delay there need be none: ’tis yours to give, and mine to conquer. How would Aeneas wish you had refused my suit!” The Rutulians consented. Mezentius donned his arms, Aeneas donned them too, and thus he spoke to Jupiter. “The foe has pledged his vintage to the Tyrrhenian king; Jupiter, thou shalt have the new wine from the Latin vines.” The better vows prevailed: huge Mezentius fell, and with his breast indignant smote the ground. Autumn came round, stained with the trodden grapes; the wine that was his due was justly paid to Jupiter. Hence the day is called the Vinalia: Jupiter claims it for his own, and loves to be present at his own feast.
M, the editor of Ovid Daily, has also written a translation of Liber IV.
M. Claudius Marcellus captured Syracuse, 212 B.C.