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Prayers to Earth

11 prayers

Tellus is invoked where an oath needs a witness that cannot be bribed, and where a farmer needs the ground to hold. She appears in the devotio of Decius Mus, who gave himself and the enemy line to the Earth and the Manes together, and in the funerary formula asking that the soil lie light.

What is asked
Fontes · Sources
  • Antonius Musa · Precatio Terrae2
  • Virgil · Aeneid2
  • Anonymous · CIL1
  • Anonymous · CIL, Acta ludorum saecularium1
  • Livy · Ab Urbe Condita1
  • M. Horatius Piscinus · Harvest Prayer to Ceres (modern reconstruction)1
  • Macrobius · Saturnalia1
  • Ovid · Fasti1
  • Statius · Thebaid1
In the sources
Tellus · Terra
The name as each source prints it.
Orationes · The texts
  1. 001

    The devotio of Decius Mus

    Livy · Ab Urbe Condita · 8.9.6-8

    Janus, Jupiter, Father Mars, Quirinus, Bellona, Lares, You divine Novensiles and You divine Indigetes, deities whose power extends over us and over our foes, and to You, too, Divine Manes, I pray, I do You reverence, I crave Your grace and favour will bless the Roman People, the Quirites, with power and victory, and will visit fear, dread and death on the enemies of the Roman People, the Quirites. In like manner as I have uttered this prayer so do I now on behalf of the commonwealth of the Quirites, on behalf of the army, the legions, the auxiliaries of the Roman People, the Quirites, devote the legions and auxiliaries of the enemy, together with myself to Tellus and the Divine Manes.

    RomanDedicationOath
  2. 002

    The devotio of Carthage

    Macrobius · Saturnalia · 3.9.10-11

    Dis Pater, Veiovis, and Di Manes, or with any other name by which it is proper to call You, since all in this city of Carthage and its army, who, I feel, fled before me in terror only because you filled them with alarm and fright, everyone who opposes our legions and the wall of shields of our army, and our missiles are carried forward on them by your hand, in this way you led away the enemy army and their soldiers. Their city and fields, and those who are in this place and this region, the lands and cities that they inhabit, you have now deprived them of the supreme light, their hostile army, their city and their lands. I feel to say that it was you who has devoted and consecrated this city and its lands, from the beginning and all time, that by law, who and when are made over and devoted as the highest sacrifices. Therefore, I who am victorious, by my faith as a magistrate of the people of Rome, and as commander of the armies, I give this vow on behalf of the people of Rome, our armies and legions, that you may retain everything born to this land and that grew in healthy by your aid. If you will make this happen, so that I may know, sense and derive that this has happened, then by whatever vow will have been made, wherever it will have been made, may it be properly made with sheep sacrificed upon the tribal altars. I call upon Tellus, Mother Earth, and You mighty Jupiter, to act as witnesses to my vow.

    RomanDedicationOath
  3. 003

    The oath of Aeneas and Latinus

    Virgil · Aeneid · 12.176-82; 197-211

    May the Sun now bear witness, and so too the Earth, I pray, for whom I have been able to endure these many labors, and you, Almighty Father, and you his consort (Juno), daughter of Saturnus, at one time more beneficial, at another kinder, be so now as I pray to you, O Goddess, and to you, too, Father Mavors, who wields all warfare under your powers, and on all the springs and rivers of this land I invoke as witnesses, and all the powers of the high heavens and those of the deep blue seas on whom it is proper to call. By these same deities I, Aeneas, swear, by the Earth and the Sea, by the stars and Latona's twin children, and dual-faced Janus, and the powers of the gods below, and the harsh shrines of Father Dis. May the Great Father hear my vow, he that sanctions alliances with his thunderbolt. I touch the altars, and by the fires and by the divine powers who I have called to witness, I so swear, that never shall I breach this alliance or the peace of Italy, no matter what or how things happen, nothing shall divert my will, not even if waves would cover the earth, plunging all into deluge, and the Heavens fell into deepest Tartarus.

    RomanOathInvocation
  4. 004

    Prayer to Earth

    Antonius Musa · Precatio Terrae

    Holy Goddess, Tellus, Mother of all Nature, engendering all things and regenerating them each day, as You alone bring forth from Your womb all things into life. Heavenly Goddess, overseeing all things on earth and throughout the seas, in whatever by silent nature is restored in sleep and in death, in the same way that You put to flight the Night with the Light You restore each day. Earth, Enricher of Life, You dispel the dark shadow of death and the disorder of vast endless Chaos. You hold back the winds and storms, the rain showers and tempests. You alone regulate the weather cycles. You give the Food of Life unfailingly, in fidelity, and when the soul by necessity departs, in You alone do we find refuge. Thus, whatever You give, in You all will be returned. Deservedly are You called Great Mother of the Gods. You are the Great Goddess, the Queen of Heaven. You, Goddess, I adore. I call upon Your power, come. Make what I ask to be readily and easily accomplished.

    RomanInvocationPraisePetition
  5. 005

    Prayer to Earth

    Antonius Musa · Precatio Terrae · 23-29

    Hear me, please, and favor me. This I ask of You, Holy Mother, and may You willingly give answer to me: May whatever herbs grow by Your providence bring health to all humankind. May You now send these forth to me as Your medicines. May they be filled with Your healing virtues. May everything that I prepare from these herbs have good result, each and every one in the same way.

    RomanPetition
  6. 006

    Prayer to Earth

    Anonymous · CIL, Acta ludorum saecularium · VI 32323, Terra Mater

    Terra Mater, as it is prescribed for you in those books, let sacrifice be made to you with a pregnant sow of your own, as a whole burnt offering. I beg and pray that you may increase the sovereign power and majesty of the Roman people, the Quirites, in war and peace; as you have always watched over us among the Latins. Forever may you grant safety, victory and health to the Roman people, the Quirites.

    RomanPetitionDedication
  7. 007

    Prayer to Earth

    Statius · Thebaid · 8.303-324

    O eternal Creatrix of Gods and men, who animates forest and stream with soul, and joins seeds of life together throughout the world, and You bear the stones of Pyrrha that were enlivened into men by the hand of Prometheus. Hungry men You were first to give nourishment with a variety of foods. You encircle and carry the sea within You. Under Your power are the gentleness of domesticated herds and the ferocity of wild beasts and the repose from flight of birds. Firm and immobile, unsetting power of the earth suspended in the vacuum of space, You are the center around which the rapid heavens revolve. Therefore are You the Bountiful who nourishes so many nations. I pray You allow that those warriors who spend their last breath in the battle will have their souls return once more into the heavens.

    RomanInvocationPraisePetition
  8. 008

    Prayer to Earth and the Penates

    Virgil · Aeneid · 7.120-122

    Hail, O Mother Tellus, for whom I am destined, and you, too, faithful Gods of Troy, hail O Penates. This is our home; this, our homeland.

    RomanInvocationGratitude
  9. 009

    Prayer to Ceres and Earth

    Ovid · Fasti · 1.671-704

    O Mothers of Fruitfulness, Earth and Ceres, please, with salted spelt cakes offered for Your mother's woe, in kind service have Earth and Ceres nurtured wheat, She who gave grain life, She who gave us room to grow. May You grant tender seed abundant increase. Let not icy cold enwrap our new shoots with snow, while we sow let cloudless skies and fair winds blow. When the seed lies sprouting, sprinkle with gentle rains, may You ward off the feasting by birds from our grains.

    RomanPetitionProtection
  10. 010

    Prayer to Ceres

    M. Horatius Piscinus · Harvest Prayer to Ceres (modern reconstruction)

    O most holy Ceres, nurturing Mother, whose sacred womb gave birth to both Gods and men; You, Vervactor, who first yoked the oxen and placed the ploughshare to virgin soil; You, Reparator, who first prepared furrows in fallow land; You, Imporcitor, who first made wide our furrows; You, Insitor, who first cast Your bounty on the earth and taught the seed to grow; Obarator, Sarritor, Subruncinator, and You, Sterculinia, who first cared for crops; You, Flora, who make the grain to bear fruit; You, Messitor, who first set scythe to grain stalks; You, Convector, who first spread grain on the sacred harvest floor; You, Noduterentor, who first showed us how to thresh, and You, most holy Ceres, whose very breath separates the white chaff from the golden grain; You, Conditor and Tutilina, who guard the grain in storage; You, Promitor, who first milled the grain and distributed its flour for our daily bread; You, eternal savior, Ceres, lavishing Your bounty upon me and mine, to You, flaxen-haired Ceres, gladly I give thanks and praise, and, from the little I have, to You I willingly make an offering. Accept these, the first fruits of my fields. May my offering incline You more towards me. May You ever nourish me and mine with Your bounty, O most holy and nurturing Mother, gentle Ceres.

    RomanInvocationGratitudeDedication
  11. 011

    Prayer to Earth

    Anonymous · CIL · VI.18149

    Goddess Tellus, I pray, may You eternally embrace the holy remains of those named on this tombstone.

    RomanPetition
Invoked alongside
Jupiter3the Manes3Ceres2Dis Pater2Janus2Mars2Apollo1Bellona1Diana1Flora1Juno1Quirinus1Sol1the Di Indigetes1the Di Novensiles1the Lares1the Penates1Veiovis1
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