Prayer to Sol

Two lines from Pacuvius' lost tragedy Medus, preserved by Cicero (De officiis I.31.114). The speaker is Medus, son of Medea, in search of his mother.

The Sun is not an arbitrary god here. Medea is the daughter of Aeetes, son of Helios; the Sun is therefore Medus' great-grandfather, and the boy looking for his kin addresses the head of the family.

Roman tragedy inherits from Greek the habit of praying along the genealogy: one approaches the god one is related to, and the request sounds less like a stranger's entreaty than like an appeal to a senior relative. Hence the word potestatem: he asks not for a favour but for an authorisation.

The Latin parentis is singular: one parent is being sought, the mother. The card's English says "parents".