ritual · Roman

Prayer to Robigo

Robigo

Spare Ceres grain, O scabby Robigo, let the tips of sprouting shoots gently quiver above rich soil. Let the crops grow, nurtured in turn as each star passes through the heavens, until full and ripe they are readied for the scythe. Your power is not light. What grain You touch, the farmer notes as lost. Spare them, I pray. May You not grasp the crops, but embrace hard iron. Destroy first whatever else is able to destroy. Better to seize the destructive spear and sword. Do not violate Ceres, but allow the farmer time to fulfill his vows for Your absence.

Commentarius · Commentary

Ovid's Fasti, the Robigalia — 25 April, in the grove at the fifth milestone on the Via Claudia. The flamen Quirinalis sacrificed a red dog and a sheep and spoke these words.

Robigo is not a patron but the disease itself: wheat rust, deified and addressed by name. Nothing is asked of her for oneself; she is asked to go elsewhere. "Embrace not the tender crops but the hard iron, and destroy first what is able to destroy others."

The device is ancient and very practical: a harmful power is not driven out but redirected onto a more suitable target. In Ovid it also turns into a political compliment. "It will be more useful for you to gnaw at swords and harmful weapons: there is no need of them; the world is at peace." The Augustan peace has left the weapons idle — so let the rust have them.

Fons · Source

AuthorOvid

WorkFasti

Section4.911-926

PeriodAugustan

OccasionRobigalia

Classificatio · Taxonomy

CultureRoman

Formritual

DeitiesRobigo

FunctionsPetition · Protection

SphereAgricultural