Religious language has a preference for archaisms and
obsolete phrases, as if such a language gives a greater sanctity and is more
effective. I, for instance, prefer the King James Version or the Dutch
Statenvertaling (1637) of the Bible above later translations, let alone
translations with a limited and easy vocabulary for people with hardly any
reading experience. Vade retro Satanas! Let’s state this for once and for all:
in order to be taken seriously, religious language - and especially spells and
incantations - must have some difficult or incomprehensible elements.
The only work having come down to us by Cato the Elder (234
BC – 149 BC) is his De Agri Cultura.
Cato was a conservative Roman politician, who devoted himself to agriculture
whenever he could. This was in compliance with his conservative political
views, as he wanted to return to the old mentality of Rome as a community of
farmers. He detested the use of Greek by his fellow Romans and started writing
Latin prose and so became the first Latin writer doing so.
Agriculture is not just a matter of ploughing, seeding
and harvesting, but also of religious ceremonies as a successful harvest is in
the hands of the gods. For this reason Cato has inserted a couple of rituals
and incantations in his work on agriculture. One of these is the suovitaurilia (or suovetaurilia), the sacrifice of a pig, a sheep and a bull – all still
young, for lustrating the farm and the land. It must have been a very old
ritual as kindred rituals are known from Indo-European speaking peoples.
It may come as a surprise that the god Mars is the object
of this agricultural ritual, but this god has a longstanding connection with
fertility.
Cato, De Agri Cultura, 141.
Agrum lustrare sic oportet. Impera suovitaurilia
circumagi: "Cum divis volentibus quodque bene eveniat, mando tibi, Mani,
uti illace suovitaurilia fundum agrum terramque meam quota ex parte sive
circumagi sive circumferenda censeas, uti cures lustrare." Ianum Iovemque vino praefamino, sic dicito:
" Mars
pater te precor quaesoque
uti sies
volens propitius
mihi domo
familiaeque nostrae;
quoius rei
ergo
agrum terram
fundumque meum
suovitaurilia
circum agi iussi:
uti tu morbos
visos invisosque
viduertatem
vastitudinemque,
calamitates
intemperiasque
prohibessis
defendas averruncesque;
uti tu fruges
frumenta vineta virgultaque
grandire
dueneque evenire siris,
pastores
pecuaque salva servassis;
duisque duonam
salutem valetudinemque
mihi domo
familiaeque nostrae:
harunce rerum
ergo
fundi terrae
agrique mei
lustrandi
lustrique faciundi ergo,
sic ut dixi,
macte hisce
suovitaurilibus
lactentibus
immolandis esto:
Mars pater,
eiusdem rei
ergo
macte hisce
suovitaurilibus
lactentibus
immolandis esto."
Item cultro facito
struem et fertum uti adsiet, inde obmoveto. Ubi porcum inmolabis, agnum
vitulumque, sic oportet:
"eiusdem
rei ergo
macte hisce
suovitaurilibus
immolandis
esto."
Nominare vetat
Martem neque agnum vitulumque. Si minus in omnis litabit, sic verba concipito:
"Mars
pater, quod tibi illoc porco neque satisfactum est, te hoc porco piaculo".
circumago: to
lead around
uti = ut
illace: illa with a strengthening suffix (also harunce and hisce.)
quota ex parte:
from whatever part (i.e. wherever the suovitaurilia
go, from that part the whole farm is lustrated)
circumferenda:
not every animal was apparently willing to walk
vino: with a
libation of wine
praefor: to
pray to (praefamino is an archaic 2
sg imp)
sies = sis
quoius = cuius
viduertas, atis (f.):
lack of fruits of the earth
vastitudo –inis
(f.): destruction
intemperiae:
bad weather
averrunco: to
avert evil
vinetum:
vineyard
virgultum: a
bush
grandio: to
make great, increase
duene = bene
(cf. bellum and duellum: the forms with du
are archaic. Also duonum = bonum.)
siris = siveris (sino)
duis = des (duis
is an archaic form)
ergo = causā
lustrandi lustrique faciundi: synonyms
macte hisce
suovitaurilibus lactentibus immolandis est : be honoured witith this
suavitauria, sucking and to be slaughtered (a combination of an imperative and a vocative.)
Item cultro facito
struem et fertum uti adsiet, inde obmoveto: also make a heap of sacrificial
cake (fertum) with a knife (cultrum), so that it is present and move
it away (to the place where the animals
are sacrificed.
vitulus: male-calf
Nominare vetat
Martem neque agnum vitulumque: a part of this sentence is missing and the
meaning can only be guessed.
lito: to
obtain favourable omens
piaculo: to
appease
This site also contains a translation in archaic English:
No comments:
Post a Comment