Prayer to Jupiter

The prayer at the sacrifice of a bull on the Capitol, from the record of the Secular Games of 17 BC. The formula is the same as at the sacrifice of the cow to Juno, and is analysed on card juno-002: the citation of the Sibylline books, the obligatory statement of the victim's sex, the abbreviation "the rest as above".

It is worth comparing the two texts literally. Here we have ut[i t]ibi in illeis libreis; there, in illis libris. One and the same formula, on one and the same stone, cut in two spellings: an archaic one preserving the diphthong ei, and the everyday one. Augustan cutters regarded the old orthography as a mark of sacral speech and applied it inconsistently, in patches.

Bove mare pulchro — with this ox, male, beautiful. A cow for Juno, a bull for Jupiter: the victim's sex matches the deity's, and the rite requires it to be said aloud.

The apparatus is preserved: square brackets mark editorial restoration, round brackets expanded abbreviations.