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.
Commentarius · Commentary
The women of Thebes are keeping the Bacchanalia — at the very hour when Alcithoe and her sisters refuse to leave the house and sit down to their spinning.
The prayer here is a catalogue of names: Bacchus, Bromius, Lyaeus, Fire-born, Twice-sown, Twice-mothered, Nyseus, Thyoneus, Lenaeus, Nyctelius, Eleleus, Iacchus, Euhan. The same insurance device as in Statius (apollo-020): run through every name so that the summons cannot fail for a wrong form of address.
But Ovid turns it into a joke. The list breaks off with an admission: "and all the many other names you have, Liber, among the Greek peoples". The enumerator gives up and concedes that a complete list is impossible. A device designed to guarantee completeness ends by confessing that completeness cannot be had.
