Diana, in faith, we are pure girls and boys, allow us to sing to You. Diana, magnificent child of still greater Jove, whose mother Latona gave You birth in an olive grove on Delos. Lady of the Mountains who runs over hills and through dark forests, over the wild rough hill country and through the tall grass of hidden valleys, in mountain pastures cut by roaring streams. Women in the pain of childbirth call you Lucina. You are Trivia, goddess of witches. You are Luna, the luminous moon.
Monthly is measured the progress of Your journey through the year while You fill the rustic homes of good farmers with the fruits of the earth. By whatsoever holy name it pleases You, from antiquity have You accepted our customary offerings, preserve in good faith the children of Romulus as ever You graced our ancestors.
Commentarius · Commentary
A hymn to Diana written by Catullus for a chorus of boys and girls — the only poem of his with a directly cultic purpose.
It is constructed as a model exposition of a deity, and that is not a criticism. First stanza: who is singing. Second: genealogy. Third: domains (mountains, green woods, hidden glens, sounding streams). Fourth: names — Lucina to women in labour, Trivia at the crossroads, Luna in the sky. Fifth: what she does, measuring out the year by monthly course and filling the barns. And only the sixth: the request.
This is the correct Greek structure of a hymn carried over into Latin whole: invocation, narration, petition. Catullus performs it without a single superfluous word, which is why the poem reads like a model one could teach from.
And the request at the end turns out Roman to the bone: "keep the people of Romulus with your good help, as you have been accustomed of old". Not for himself and not for the chorus — for the state.
