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Prayers to Jupiter

20 prayers

Jupiter is prayed to as a magistrate is addressed: formally, in the open, on behalf of everyone. Almost nothing here is private. The texts are consular vows, treaty oaths sworn on the Capitol, the formula of the fetial priests declaring war, and Livy's reconstructions of what was said at moments the state thought it might not survive.

What is asked
Fontes · Sources
  • Livy · Ab Urbe Condita6
  • Cato · De Agricultura2
  • Ovid · Fasti2
  • Virgil · Aeneid2
  • Anonymous · CIL, Acta ludorum saecularium1
  • Cato · Origines1
  • Cicero · De Domo sua ad Pontifices1
  • Cicero · In Catilinam1
  • Julius Agathemerus (dedicator) · Hymn to Priapus, CIL XIV 35651
  • Macrobius · Saturnalia1
  • Statius · Thebaid1
  • Tacitus · Annales1
In the sources
Iuppiter · Jupiter
The name as each source prints it.
Orationes · The texts
  1. 001

    Prayer to Priapus

    Julius Agathemerus (dedicator) · Hymn to Priapus, CIL XIV 3565

    Hail, holy Priapus, father of all things, hail! Give me a flourishing youth so that, be it boys be it girls, I can please them with my horny phallus, and with frequent games and jokes, I may dissipate the worries that vex the mind and not fear heavy old age too much, that I not be vexed with terror of miserable death, which will drag me to the jealous mansions of Avernus where their king holds sway over the fabled Manes and the fates deny anyone a return. Hail, holy father Priapus, hail! Come gather at once, however many you all are, you girls who tend the sacred grove, you girls who tend the sacred waters, come gather, however many you are, and with a pleasing voice, speak to beautiful Priapus: Hail, holy Priapus, father of all things! Next, place a thousand kisses on his crotch, gird his phallus well with fragrant wreaths, and once more all say to him: Hail, holy Priapus, father of all things! For warding off evil, blood-stained people, he grants you to go through the woods and through the unbloodied shady silences. He also wards off wrongdoers from the springs, who with illicit foot would walk across the sacred waters and disturb them, who wash their hands and do not first with many a prayer invoke you, you girlish goddesses. All say: O Priapus, be favorable, father, hail, holy father Priapus, hail! O Priapus, potent friend, hail, whether you wish to be called the father and creator of this sphere, or Nature herself and the Universe, hail! For it is by your vigor that everything is conceived which fills the earth, aether and sea. So hail, Priapus, hail, holy one! Jupiter himself, when you wish it, puts down his thunderbolts at once and in his lust leaves his bright dwellings behind. Good Venus, glowing Cupid, the Grace and her twin sisters worship you, as does Lyaeus, the giver of joy. For without you Venus is little regarded, and the Grace, Cupid and Bacchus are without charm. O Priapus, potent friend, hail! Chaste virgins call on you in prayer that you may open their long fastened girdle, and the bride calls you, so that her husband may often have a hard and always a potent member. Hail, holy father Priapus, hail!

    RomanInvocationPetitionDedication
  2. 002

    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
  3. 003

    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
  4. 004

    Prayer to Jupiter

    Ovid · Fasti · 4.827-832

    As I found this city, be present, Jupiter, Father Mars, and Mother Vesta, and all gods who it is pious to summon, join together to attend. Grant that my work may rise with Your auspices. Grant that it may for many years hold dominion on earth, and assert its power over the east and west.

    RomanPetitionInvocation
  5. 005

    Prayer to Terminus and Jupiter

    Ovid · Fasti · 2.659-684

    You set bounds to peoples, cities, great kingdoms: without you every field would be disputed. You curry no favour: you aren't bribed with gold, guarding the land entrusted to you in good faith. If you'd once marked the bounds of Thyrean lands, three hundred men would not have died, nor Othryades' name be seen on the pile of weapons. O how he made his fatherland bleed! What happened when the new Capitol was built? The whole throng of gods yielded to Jupiter and made room: but as the ancients tell, Terminus remained in the shrine where he was found, and shares the temple with great Jupiter. Even now there's a small hole in the temple roof, so he can see nothing above him but stars. Since then, Terminus, you've not been free to wander: stay there, in the place where you've been put, and yield not an inch to your neighbour's prayers, lest you seem to set men above Jupiter: and whether they beat you with rakes, or ploughshares, call out: 'This is your field, and that is his!' The lands of other races have fixed boundaries: the extent of the City of Rome and the world is one.

    RomanPraiseInvocation
  6. 006

    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
  7. 007

    Prayer to Jupiter

    Cicero · In Catilinam · 1.33

    Then do you, O Jupiter, who were consecrated by Romulus with the same auspices as this City, whom we rightly call the stay of this city and empire, repel this man and his companions from your altars and from the other temples, from the houses and walls of the city, from the lives and fortunes of all the citizens; and overwhelm all the enemies of good men, the foes of the republic, the robbers of Italy, men bound together by a treaty and infamous alliance of crimes, dead and alive, with eternal punishments.

    RomanPetitionProtection
  8. 008

    Prayer to Jupiter

    Anonymous · CIL, Acta ludorum saecularium · VI 32323, Iuppiter O.M.

    Jupiter Optimus Maximus, as it is prescribed for you in the Sibylline Oracles, let sacrifice be made to you with this fine bull. I beg you and pray that you may increase the power and majesty of the Roman people, the Quirites, in war and peace; and that the Latins may always be obedient; and that you may grant eternal safety, victory and health to the Roman people, the Quirites.

    RomanPetitionDedication
  9. 009

    Prayer to Jupiter

    Livy · Ab Urbe Condita · 1.12.4-7

    O Jupiter, it was through Your omen that I was led while I laid here upon the Palatine Hill, to establish the very first foundations of the city of Rome. Already the Arx, that fortress wickedly bought, is seized by the Sabines. But if You, Father of the Gods and of men, hold back our enemies, at least from this spot, delivering the Romans from their terror, and stay their shameful retreat, then this I vow to You, Jupiter Stator, that a holy precinct and shrine will be built in Your honor as a memorial to remind our descendents of how once the city of Rome was saved by Your aid.

    RomanPetitionOathDedication
  10. 010

    Prayer to Jupiter

    Livy · Ab Urbe Condita · 1.24.7-9

    Hear, o Jupiter; hear me, too, Pater Patratus of the people of Alba! As these provisions have been written in good faith and publicly read from beginning to end from these tablets, and inasmuch as they have today been most clearly understood, so the People of Rome will not be the first to withdraw from these treaty provisions. If, in their public council, they were to do so, with false and malicious intent break this treaty, then, Dispater, on that day, may You bring ruin on the People of Rome, even as today I shall strike this swine.

    RomanOath
  11. 011

    The fetial declaration of war

    Livy · Ab Urbe Condita · 1.32.10

    Hear, o Jupiter, and You Janus Quirinus, and all You heavenly Gods, and You gods of earth and of the lower world, hear me! I call You to witness that this people is unjust and does not fulfill its sacred obligations.

    RomanOathPetition
  12. 012

    Prayer to Ceres

    Cato · De Agricultura · 134

    Ceres Mater, to You I pray with good prayers, offering You this pile of cakes, so that You might willing be favorable to me and my children, to my home and household. Ceres Mater, for the same reasons given in the good prayers I prayed while offering You piled cakes, may You accept and be honored by this portion of wine I pour.

    RomanPetitionDedication
  13. 013

    Prayer to Jupiter

    Cato · De Agricultura · 132

    Jupiter Dapalis, it is a tradition in my family that a cup of wine be offered to You in thanksgiving for the sacred feast. For this reason may You accept this feast offering. Jupiter Dapalis, may You be strengthened by this feast, may You be warmed by this small portion of our wine that I offer.

    RomanDedicationGratitude
  14. 014

    Prayer to Jupiter

    Cicero · De Domo sua ad Pontifices · 144

    Jupiter Capitolinus, to You I pray, I entreat You, who the Roman people have named Optimus after Your kindness and Maximus after Your great power.

    RomanInvocationPetition
  15. 015

    The oath at Canusium

    Livy · Ab Urbe Condita · 22.53.10-11

    I swear with a deep conviction of mind that I shall never allow myself to desert the Republic of the people of Rome. If I should willfully break my oath, may Jupiter Optimus Maximus inflict upon me the worst, most shameful ruin, and on my house, my family, and all I possess.

    RomanOath
  16. 016

    Prayer to Jupiter

    Virgil · Aeneid · 5.687-693

    Jupiter Almighty, if You do not yet detest every Trojan to a man, if You still regard our pious acts of old, Father, grant that the flames will now avoid our fleet, and may You pull the diminished people of Troy away from destruction. Or else, if I so deserve, then send forth Your thunderbolt from above and cast those who remain into death, and by Your power rightly bury them.

    RomanPetition
  17. 017

    Prayer to Jupiter

    Statius · Thebaid · 3.470-476

    Almighty Jupiter, You are He who imparts counsel to swift wings, and You who fills birds with foreknowledge of the future, and brings to light the omens and causes that lurk within the heavens. More enriched in mind is he, for whom You, O Dictaean Jupiter, announce Your will in the favoring flights of birds. May You allow that, guided by the skies, we shall have foreknowledge of the assembly of Argive forces and their initial movements in the fight ahead.

    RomanPetitionInvocation
  18. 018

    Prayer to Jupiter

    Livy · Ab Urbe Condita · 6.16.1

    Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Juno Regina, Minerva, and all you other gods and goddesses who dwell upon the Capitolium and the Arx, is this how you allow your defender, the protector of your shrines, to be treated, to be vexed and harassed by his enemies in this manner? Shall this right arm which drove the Gauls headlong from your shrines now be bound and chained?

    RomanPetitionOath
  19. 019

    Prayer to Jupiter

    Cato · Origines · 1 fr. 12

    The Latins vowed: Jupiter, if it is greatly pleasing to You, that we, rather than Mezentium, should give offerings to You, accordingly may You make us victorious.

    RomanOathPetition
  20. 020

    Prayer to Jupiter

    Tacitus · Annales · 16.35

    We pour out a libation to Jupiter the Liberator. Observe, discover, and may the Gods avert the omen from you, my son, but you are born into a time when it is expedient to fortify your spirit with examples of courage and firmness of mind in the face of adversity.

    RomanDedicationPetition
Invoked alongside
Janus4Earth3Juno3Mars3the Manes3Dis Pater2Apollo1Bellona1Ceres1Cupid1Diana1Liber1Minerva1Priapus1Quirinus1Sol1Terminus1the Di Indigetes1the Di Novensiles1the Graces1the Lares1the Nymphs1Veiovis1Venus1Vesta1
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