Prayer to Diana

Arethusa, a hunting nymph, is fleeing the river god Alpheus and calls on Diana as she runs.

The prayer is a single breath long, and all its force lies in the ground of the request. Arethusa does not ask; she reminds the goddess of service rendered: "to your armour-bearer, to whom you have often given your bow and the shafts shut in your quiver to carry". She was the goddess's armigera — and claims help by right of the retinue.

The argument is Roman to the bone: relations with a deity are conceived as those of patron and client, where loyal service earns protection. Ovid puts it in a Greek nymph's mouth without the slightest embarrassment.

Diana will help — she hides Arethusa in a cloud and then turns her into a spring. The request is granted literally, and with the side effect usual in the Metamorphoses.