Prayer to Venus

Ovid has fallen in love and addresses Venus. The prayer runs to six lines, and in those six lines the request changes three times.

He begins from right: iusta precor, I pray for what is just. Then a demand: let her love me — or at least let her make me love for ever. And immediately a retreat: a, nimium volui, ah, I have wanted too much — let her merely allow herself to be loved. The petitioner haggles with himself in the deity's presence and lowers his price before any refusal has come.

Then he turns to what he offers in exchange, and the offer is commercial in character: accipe, per longos tibi qui deserviat annos — accept one who will be your slave for long years. Deservire is a verb of slave service, and tibi refers to Venus, not to the girl. It is himself he makes over to the goddess; the girl is the wage.

Pura … fide — with pure faith. Fides, contractual good faith, was itself a Roman deity with a temple on the Capitol. To the goddess of love he offers the virtue on which bargains rest: not passion but reliability of performance.