The Salian Hymn

A scrap of the Salian hymn quoted by Varro in his treatise on the Latin language. It is the oldest and the most incomprehensible religious text in Latin. The Salii sang it in their annual procession and, on contemporary testimony, already understood it badly; Varro examines it as a philological curiosity, not as a believer.

The language is archaic enough that nearly every word needs translating into classical Latin: Cozeui is Consivius (Janus the Sower), duonus is bonus, Cerus means "creator" (the root of Ceres), commissei is commisi, recum is regum. Patulcius and Clusius, "Opener" and "Shutter", are the two names of Janus for the two states of a door.

The structure of the text is a list of names: the god is called by each of his titles in turn until the right one is hit. Ritual is older than theology, and here one can see it plainly.

The text is unstable. Varro's manuscripts are corrupt, the word division is disputed, and different editions print this fragment differently; the asterisks mark a lacuna. The Russian here is not a translation but one of several possible conjectures, and cannot be relied on.