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Prayers to Liber

5 prayers

Liber is the Italian god the Romans identified with Bacchus, and the corpus keeps the name where the source keeps it. His rite is agricultural and civic — the Liberalia of March, when boys took the man's toga — and coarser in the countryside than anything the literary Bacchus does.

Fontes · Sources
  • Ovid · Fasti2
  • Julius Agathemerus (dedicator) · Hymn to Priapus, CIL XIV 35651
  • Ovid · Metamorphoses1
  • Seneca · Oedipus1
Orationes · The texts
  1. 001

    Prayer to Bacchus

    Seneca · Oedipus · 403-441; 503-508

    Let the people's hymn sound with the praise of Bacchus. Bind your streaming locks with the nodding ivy, and in your soft hands grasp the Nysaean thyrsus! Bright glory of the sky, come hither to the prayers which thine own illustrious Thebes, O Bacchus, offers to thee with suppliant hands. Hither turn with favour thy virginal face; with thy star-bright countenance drive away the clouds, the grim threats of Erebus, and greedy fate. Thee it becomes to circle thy locks with flowers of the springtime, thee to cover thy head with Tyrian turban, or thy smooth brow to wreathe with the ivy's clustering berries; now to fling loose thy lawless-streaming locks, again to bind them in a knot close-drawn; in such guise as when, fearing thy stepdame's wrath, thou didst grow to manhood with false-seeming limbs, a pretended maiden with golden ringlets, with saffron girdle binding thy garments. So thereafter this soft vesture has pleased thee, folds loose hanging and the long-trailing mantle. Seated in thy golden chariot, thy lions with long trappings covered, all the vast coast of the Orient saw thee, both he who drinks of the Ganges and whoever breaks the ice of snowy Araxes. On an unseemly ass old Silenus attends thee, his swollen temples bound with ivy garlands; while thy wanton initiates lead the mystic revels. Along with thee a troop of Bassarids in Edonian dance beat the ground, now on Mount Pangaeus' peak, now on the top of Thracian Pindus; now midst Cadmean dames has come a maenad, the impious comrade of Ogygian Bacchus, with sacred fawn-skins girt about her loins, her hand a light thyrsus brandishing. Their hearts maddened by thee, the matrons have set their hair a-flowing;

    RomanInvocationPraise
  2. 002

    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
  3. 003

    Prayer to Bacchus and Liber

    Ovid · Metamorphoses · 4.11-17; 31

    Bacchus they call you, and Bromius, and Lyaeus, born in fire, and Savior also, who alone was born of two mothers. Revered as a God in Nyseus, unshorn Thyoneus, joyful Lenaeus, the sower of grapes, Lord of Nocturnal Revelries, the Bullroarer, and by many more names, Liber, are You known among the Greeks. Adored for your eternal youth, a youth everlasting, you the most beautiful among the celestial Gods high above, to You are sacrifices made when You, without horns upon Your most virgin head, are near and lend us Your assistance. Arising victorious in the East, illuminating those distant lands faded in memory, to outermost India as far as the banks of the Ganges. Calm and mild, may you come to us.

    RomanInvocationPraise
  4. 004

    Prayer to Bacchus and Liber

    Ovid · Fasti · III.713-714

    There's a popular festival of Bacchus, on the third day after the Ides. Bacchus, favour the poet who sings your feast.

    RomanPetition
  5. 005

    Prayer to Bacchus and Liber

    Ovid · Fasti · 3.789-790

    Father, turn your mild head here, and gentle horns, and spread the sails of my art to a favourable breeze.

    RomanPetition
Invoked alongside
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ENRU
Roman

Prayers to Liber

5 prayers

Liber is the Italian god the Romans identified with Bacchus, and the corpus keeps the name where the source keeps it. His rite is agricultural and civic — the Liberalia of March, when boys took the man's toga — and coarser in the countryside than anything the literary Bacchus does.

Fontes · Sources
  • Ovid · Fasti2
  • Julius Agathemerus (dedicator) · Hymn to Priapus, CIL XIV 35651
  • Ovid · Metamorphoses1
  • Seneca · Oedipus1
Orationes · The texts
  1. 001

    Prayer to Bacchus

    Seneca · Oedipus · 403-441; 503-508

    Let the people's hymn sound with the praise of Bacchus. Bind your streaming locks with the nodding ivy, and in your soft hands grasp the Nysaean thyrsus! Bright glory of the sky, come hither to the prayers which thine own illustrious Thebes, O Bacchus, offers to thee with suppliant hands. Hither turn with favour thy virginal face; with thy star-bright countenance drive away the clouds, the grim threats of Erebus, and greedy fate. Thee it becomes to circle thy locks with flowers of the springtime, thee to cover thy head with Tyrian turban, or thy smooth brow to wreathe with the ivy's clustering berries; now to fling loose thy lawless-streaming locks, again to bind them in a knot close-drawn; in such guise as when, fearing thy stepdame's wrath, thou didst grow to manhood with false-seeming limbs, a pretended maiden with golden ringlets, with saffron girdle binding thy garments. So thereafter this soft vesture has pleased thee, folds loose hanging and the long-trailing mantle. Seated in thy golden chariot, thy lions with long trappings covered, all the vast coast of the Orient saw thee, both he who drinks of the Ganges and whoever breaks the ice of snowy Araxes. On an unseemly ass old Silenus attends thee, his swollen temples bound with ivy garlands; while thy wanton initiates lead the mystic revels. Along with thee a troop of Bassarids in Edonian dance beat the ground, now on Mount Pangaeus' peak, now on the top of Thracian Pindus; now midst Cadmean dames has come a maenad, the impious comrade of Ogygian Bacchus, with sacred fawn-skins girt about her loins, her hand a light thyrsus brandishing. Their hearts maddened by thee, the matrons have set their hair a-flowing;

  2. 002

    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!

  3. 003

    Prayer to Bacchus and Liber

    Ovid · Metamorphoses · 4.11-17; 31

    Bacchus they call you, and Bromius, and Lyaeus, born in fire, and Savior also, who alone was born of two mothers. Revered as a God in Nyseus, unshorn Thyoneus, joyful Lenaeus, the sower of grapes, Lord of Nocturnal Revelries, the Bullroarer, and by many more names, Liber, are You known among the Greeks. Adored for your eternal youth, a youth everlasting, you the most beautiful among the celestial Gods high above, to You are sacrifices made when You, without horns upon Your most virgin head, are near and lend us Your assistance. Arising victorious in the East, illuminating those distant lands faded in memory, to outermost India as far as the banks of the Ganges. Calm and mild, may you come to us.

  4. 004

    Prayer to Bacchus and Liber

    Ovid · Fasti · III.713-714

    There's a popular festival of Bacchus, on the third day after the Ides. Bacchus, favour the poet who sings your feast.

  5. 005

    Prayer to Bacchus and Liber

    Ovid · Fasti · 3.789-790

    Father, turn your mild head here, and gentle horns, and spread the sails of my art to a favourable breeze.

Invoked alongside
← All gods