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ritual · Roman
Prayer to Venus Verticordia and Fortuna Virilis
Venus Verticordia · Fortuna Virilis
Duly do you worship the goddess, you Latin mothers and brides, and you too who wear not the fillets and long robe. Take off the golden necklaces from the marble neck of the goddess; take off her gauds; the goddess must be washed from top to toe. Then dry her neck and restore to it her golden necklaces; now give her other flowers, now give her the fresh-blown rose. You too she herself bids bathe under the green myrtle, and there is a certain reason for her command; learn what it is. Naked, she was drying on the shore her oozy locks, when the satyrs, a wanton crew, espied the goddess. She perceived it, and screened her body by myrtle interposed: that done, she was safe, and she bids you do the same. Learn now why you give incense to Virile Fortune in the place which reeks of warm water. All women strip when they enter that place, and every blemish on the naked body is plain to see; Virile Fortune undertakes to conceal the blemish and to hide it from the men, and this she does for the consideration of a little incense. Nor grudge to take poppy pounded with snowy milk and liquid honey squeezed from the comb; when Venus was first escorted to her eager spouse, she drank that draught: from that time she was a bride. Propitiate her with supplications; beauty and virtue and good fame are in her keeping. In the time of our forefathers Rome had fallen from a state of chastity, and the ancients consulted the old woman of Cumae. She ordered a temple to be built to Venus, and when that was duly done, Venus took the name of Changer of the Heart from the event. Fairest of goddesses, ever behold the sons of Aeneas with look benign, and guard your offspring's numerous wives.
Commentarius · Commentary
The first of April, the Veneralia. Ovid does not pray; he gives instructions. He tells the women what to do, and explains along the way why it is done so.
The rite is a lavatio, the washing of a cult statue. The gold is taken off the marble neck, the goddess is washed all over, the neck is dried, the gold is put back, fresh flowers and a rose are given. The order is set out as a sequence of actions, and in it the deity is an object of maintenance, from which the jewellery must first be removed.
The participants are listed exhaustively: "Latin mothers and young wives, and you who lack the fillet and the long dress". The last are women denied the right to wear a matron's clothing, that is, prostitutes. Ovid names them not by their occupation but by the garment they lack, and includes them in the rite on equal terms: on this day Venus recognises no rank.
The myrtle is explained by a story: Venus, naked, was drying her hair on the shore, satyrs saw her, and she hid behind a myrtle bush. Hence the myrtle over the bath. Ovid explains everything this way in the Fasti — for him a rite is always the trace of something that once happened.
Fons · Source
AuthorOvid
WorkFasti
Section4.133-162
Periodearly 1st c. AD
OccasionVeneralia (April 1) — ritual instructions and invocation for Roman matrons and brides washing the statue of Venus Verticordia, with rites to Fortuna Virilis at the baths
