March 7th | Fastorum Liber Tertius: Martius
B • NON • F | Nonis | III.429-458, Ovid discusses the establishment of the temple of Veiovis and the ascent of Pegasus into his constellation-form.
Una nota est Marti Nonis, sacrata quod illis
templa putant lucos Veiovis ante duos. 430
Romulus ut saxo lucum circumdedit alto,
“quilibet huc” inquit “confuge, tutus eris.”
O quam de tenui Romanus origine crevit!
turba vetus quam non invidiosa fuit!
ne tamen ignaro novitas tibi nominis obstet, 435
disce, quis iste deus, curque vocetur ita.
Iuppiter est iuvenis: iuvenalis aspice voltus;
aspice deinde manum, fulmina nulla tenet.
fulmina post ausos caelum adfectare Gigantas
sumpta Iovi; primo tempore inermis erat. 440
ignibus Ossa novis et Pelion altius Ossa
arsit et in solida fixus Olympus humo.
stat quoque capra simul: nymphae pavisse feruntur
Cretides; infanti lac dedit illa Iovi.
nunc vocor ad nomen. vegrandia farra coloni 445
quae male creverunt, vescaque parva vocant.
vis ea si verbi est, cur non ego Veiovis aedem
aedem non magni suspicer esse Iovis?
iamque, ubi caeruleum variabunt sidera caelum,
suspice: Gorgonei colla videbis equi. 450
creditur hic caesae gravida cervice Medusae
sanguine respersis prosiluisse iubis.
huic supra nubes et subter sidera lapso
caelum pro terra, pro pede pinna fuit,
iamque indignanti nova frena receperat ore, 455
cum levis Aonias ungula fodit aquas.
nunc fruitur caelo, quod pinnis ante petebat,
et nitidus stellis quinque decemque micat.
429 The Nones of March have only one mark1 in the calendar, because they think that on that day the temple of Veiovis was consecrated in front of the two groves.2 When Romulus surrounded the grove with a high stone wall, “Take refuge here,” said he, “whoe’er thou art; thou shalt be safe.” Ο from how small a beginning the Roman took his rise! How little to be envied was that multitude of old! But that the strangeness of the name may not prove a stumbling-block to you in your ignorance, learn who that god is, and why he is so called. He is the Young Jupiter: look on his youthful face; look then on his hand, it holds no thunderbolts. Jupiter assumed the thunderbolts after the giants dared attempt to win the sky; at first he was unarmed. Ossa blazed with the new fires (of his thunderbolts); Pelion, too, higher than Ossa, and Olympus, fixed in the solid ground. A she-goat also stands (beside the image of Veiovis); the Cretan nymphs are said to have fed the god; it was the she-goat that gave her milk to the infant Jove. Now I am called on to explain the name. Countrymen call stunted spelt vegrandia, and what is little they call vesca. If that is the meaning of the word, may I not suspect that the shrine of Veiovis is the shrine of the little Jupiter?3
449 And now when the stars shall spangle the blue sky, look up: you will see the neck of the Gorgonian steed,4 He is said to have leaped forth from the teeming neck of the slain Medusa, his mane bespattered with blood. As he glided above the clouds and beneath the stars, the sky served him as solid ground, and his wing served him for a foot. Soon indignantly he champed the unwonted bit, when his light hoof struck out the Aonian spring.5 Now he enjoys the sky, to which aforetime he soared on wings, and he sparkles bright with fifteen stars.
F, for Fastus. That is, there is no meeting of the Comitia or the Senate.
The space between the two peaks of the Capitol, on each of which were trees originally. Here Romulus enclosed his lucus, the asylum for fugitives.
The meaning of ve- in Veiovis is uncertain. In other words it does imply “without” in some form.
Pegasus, which sprang from the severed neck of the Gorgon Medusa.
Hippocrene, the “Horse’s Fountain” on Helicon.