Prayer to Vesta

The Vestalia, 9 June. Ovid begins his account and marks the very moment at which speech becomes permitted.

Operata resolvimus ora — performing the rite, we unbind our lips. This is the reverse side of favete linguis, the demand for complete silence at a sacrifice (ovid-aesculapius-001). Roman ritual regulated speech in both directions: in one place it forbade it altogether, in another it prescribed set words, and unsealing the lips was as much a ritual act as sealing them.

Ad tua si nobis sacra venire licet — if it is permitted us to come to your rites. The condition is not polite but anxious: the inner part of Vesta's temple was closed to men, and Ovid is a man who has undertaken to describe a women's festival. He is asking leave to enter where entry is forbidden.

A few dozen lines later he will describe having looked inside after all. He saw nothing forbidden there — and explains to the reader that there was nothing to see: no statue, no image, only fire.