Before all else, worship the Gods, and to great Ceres pay Her annual due upon the happy sward with sacrifice, at the utmost end of winter, when spring begins to smile. Then are the lambs fat, and the wines most mellow, then is sleep sweet, and dark the shadows fall upon the mountains. Let your rustic youth do obedience to Ceres, one and all; and for Her pleasure mix honeycombs in milk, and offer Liber's ripe produce. Thrice for luck around the young grain let the offerings travel, and all the choir, a joyful company, attend it, and with shouts bid Ceres come to be their house-mate. Let no man dare put sickle to ripened ears until, with woven oak his temples wreath, he foot the rugged dance and chant the lay.
Commentarius · Commentary
Virgil prescribes to the farmer a spring rite for Ceres — a circuit of the field with a victim at winter's end.
There is no prayer as such here: there is an instruction for making one. "Let all your country youth worship Ceres", "let the auspicious victim go three times around the new crops", "let them call Ceres into the house with a shout". The Georgics are written throughout in the imperative, and the rite is presented exactly as sowing or grafting is — as work to be done on time and by the rules.
And it all ends in a prohibition: no one may put a sickle to the ripe ears until he has danced Ceres an ungainly dance and sung. The harvest does not begin until the rite has been discharged.
The work has been corrected: the card had "Eclogues"; this is the Georgics.
