Prayer to Neptune

The river-god Achelous is telling the story of the girl Perimele, whom her father threw from a cliff into the sea for having yielded to him. Achelous, catching her up on the waves, prays to Neptune.

The opening reminds the god of his title: "you who drew by lot the realm nearest the world". The universe was divided by lot among three, and Neptune drew the sea. The request begins by establishing that the matter falls within his jurisdiction.

And then something strange is asked. Da … locum, vel sit locus ipsa — give her a place, or let her herself become a place. The petitioner offers the god a choice between rescue and transformation, and himself proposes the second way out. In no other prayer in this corpus does the suppliant suggest the method of performance.

Neptune takes the second: Perimele becomes an island, one of the Echinades. The request is granted in the alternative that was the fallback.

The card cited lines 595-602; 595-598 are given, that is, the prayer itself.