Prayer to Faunus

The opening of the ode Horace wrote for the Faunalia, the country festival of 5 December; its second half, not given here, describes the feast itself, when the wolf strolls among the sheep and the labourer dances on the earth he hates.

The request is unusual in that the god is asked to leave: "pass gently and go away". Faunus is dangerous to flocks, and the owner wants not his presence but his safe passage across the boundaries. The "little nurslings" are the newborn lambs, for whose sake the whole thing is said.

The payment is stated in the present tense: the kid falls, the wine does not run short, the altar smokes. This is not a promise for the future but the production of a contract already in force — an annual retainer, paid punctually. Do ut des is turned inside out: not "I will give if you give", but "I always give, so behave yourself".

The reference has been corrected: the card read Carm. 3.8, which is the ode Martiis caelebs quid agam Kalendis; Faune, Nympharum fugientum amator is 3.18.