Prayer to Jupiter

Two formulae from Cato's farming manual. The meal is set out for Jupiter when the pear is in blossom, and it is set out on behalf of the oxen: on that day the oxen, the drovers and those performing the rite all have a holiday, and after the meal the sowing of millet, panic, garlic and lentils begins.

Macte … esto is a phrase that does not really translate. Macte means roughly "be magnified, receive this as increase", and it is the technical formula of Roman sacrifice; from it comes the verb mactare, to offer up. The god is neither thanked nor petitioned — he is declared honoured, and by that declaration the rite counts as performed.

Iuppiter Dapalis, Jupiter of the Feast, is a title derived straight from the offering: daps, a ritual meal. Roman gods multiply by occasion, and for each occasion Jupiter has a name of his own, valid only there.

There is no request at all. There is a statement of what has been set down and for whom — nearer to a certificate of delivery than to a prayer.

The card's original was the wrong text. It formerly carried the line Iuppiter Dapalis, macte esto hac dape quam tibi appono — which is not in Cato, and the word appono does not occur in chapter 132 at all. Checked against the edition and replaced with the two genuine formulae of the chapter — at the offering of the meal and at the libation of wine — which are what the card's English renders.