Prayer to Carmenta

The milk libation in the modern order of the Carmentalia; for the general explanation see carmenta-001.

The formula itself is genuine: macte esto, "be honoured" — the very one with which Cato accompanies every offering (compare jupiter-002, cato-mars-lustratio-002). It means not "accept" so much as "be increased, grow by this": the sacrifice is conceived as an addition to the god's power.

The grammar, however, gives the modern composition away completely. Macte ista libatione pollicenda sint … macte lacti inferio sint — a plural sint addressed to a single goddess, and lacti for lacte. The composer knew how the formula sounded but did not fully command the language he was writing it in.

Milk is a fitting offering for a deity of birth; that said, the rite of the Carmentalia is nowhere described in detail by any ancient source, and the choice here remains the reconstructor's guess.