Prayer to Flora

The end of the account of the Floralia. Request and justification here rest on a single word.

Floreat ut toto carmen Nasonis in aevo — that Naso's song may flower through all ages. The poet asks the goddess of flowers that his verses should flower: the argument is derived entirely from her name. This is how Roman prayer worked in general — one asks a god for what is contained in the god's title, and so the title must be chosen correctly.

Sparge, precor, donis pectora nostra tuis — sprinkle my breast with your gifts. Flora's gifts are flowers, and inspiration is described as being showered with them. At the Floralia themselves flowers were scattered over the crowd; the poet asks that the rite be performed on him.

Carmen Nasonis — Ovid names himself. Asking immortality for his own verses inside those verses is a habit with him, but the request here is more modest than usual: not fame but flowering, that is, a freshness that does not pass.