Prayer to Bacchus and Liber

Ovid is opening his account of the Liberalia — the festival of 17 March, the third day after the Ides.

Celeberrima is rendered "most thronged", and that is the exact sense: celeber means first of all "crowded, well attended", and "famous" only as a consequence. The day is described by its turnout.

Bacche, fave vati, dum tua festa cano — Bacchus, favour your poet while I sing your feast. Here is the whole principle of the Fasti. Ovid brings the god no sacrifice; he brings him verses about the god's own festival and asks favour in return. The poem is the offering, and each opening is the presentation of payment.

Vati — the poet calls himself a vates, a seer; the word is priestly, and it supplies the transaction with its ground: one who sings of divine things is in the god's service and may ask as an employee.

The prayer that closes the same account is on card ovid-bacchus-002.