PART
7 –
Ch.XLI.13
The
great Pelasgian empire
(The
Pelasgian language)
XLI.
13. The song of the Arvali Brothers (Carmen Fratrum arvalium).
There existed at
Rome even from immemorial times a college of priests called Fratres arvales (brothers of rural
estates), who made religious public sacrifices and ceremonies in honor of the
archaic divinity Dea Dia (Diua), for
the fertility of the fields, for the wellbeing and increase of the flocks.
The temple and
sacred grove of the goddess were at Via Campana, at a distance of 5 miles from
The text of this
ancient religious song is known to us only from the transcribing made in the
acts of the Arvali Brothers in 218ad, in the time of the emperor Heliogabalus.
On the marble
tablets of this inscription, the words are usually written together, and the
separation of the words, as done in the editions which have appeared so far, is
erroneous in many regards.
We shall reproduce
here the text of this epigraphic monument, as published by Henzen in “Acta Fratrum arvalium” (p. CCIV; C. I. L. vol. VI. nr.
2104), and in “Corpus Inscriptionum latinarum”; and we shall examine then, from
a linguistic point of view, the parts of this ancient religious prayer which
have still remained unclear.
1.
Enos Lases iuvate.
Neve luaerve Marma (Marmar) sins (sers)
incurrere in pleores (pleoris).
3.
Satur furere
(fufere) Mars limen sali sta berber
Semunis (simunis) alternei aduocapit
conctos.
4.
Enos Marmar (Mamor)
iuvato.
Triumpe, triumpe, triumpe, triumpe,
triumpe.
The verses 1 – 5
are each repeated 3 times, and the last exclamation 5 times.
Some words are
written in various forms. The more important versions are reproduced in
parentheses.
The translations made
so far from this important monument of religious Roman language, diverge so
much from one another that we can say that except the first and the last two
verses, all the others have remained unclear. We reproduce the following from
these translations:
Hermann: Nos, Lares, juvate, neve luem Mamuri,
siris incurrere in plures; satur fueris, Mars, limen i. e. postremum, sali,
sta, vervex: Semones alterni, jam duo capit cunctus. Nos, Mamuri, juvato.
Triumphe (Egger, Latini sermonis vet.
Reliquiae, p. 1843, p. 70).
Grotefend: En! Nos, Lares, juvate. Neve luem, Mars,
sinas incurrere in
Klausen: Age, nos, Lares, iuvate. Neve luem,
Mars, sinas incurrere in plures: Satur furere, Mars, pede pulsa limen, sta
verbere: Semones alterni advocabite cunctos: Age, nos, Mars, iuvato. Triumphe (Klausen, De Carmine Fratr. arv. p. 23).
Mommsen: Nos, Lares, iuvate! Ne luem ruem (s. ruinam), Mamers, sinas incurrere in plures! (in Germ.ed.1856: Ne malam luem). Satur esto, fere Mars! In
limen insili! Sta! verbera (limen?)(in Germ.ed.1856: Desiste verberare [limen]). Semones
alterni advocate conctos! Nos, Mamera, iuvato. Tripudia! [1].
[1. Hist. rom. I (ed. 1863), p. 298.
Mommsen’s translation (TN – from
French): “Lares, come to our aid, Mars,
Mars, do not let death and ruin fall on the mob! Be satiated, ferocious Mars!
Jump on the doorstep! Stand up! Knock (the doorstep). You first, you next,
invoke, all the Semones! (Lares gods). You, Mars, Mars, be our helper! Jump,
Jump, Jump!”].
As we see, we have
here translations which for the most part have nothing to do with the forms of
ancient religious style.
The text of the
Arval song, altered in the course of time in more regards, still contains some
archaic forms from the barbarian Latin language. We shall treat here these
forms.
Enos is not En! Nos, but E nos. Here
the particle e from the beginning
corresponds to e from the old
Romanian church books where it has the meaning of vero, autem, enim (Sbiera,
Codicele Voronetian).
Luaerve is a word composed of lua, Lat. levare, Rom. lua (TN – take), and erve, Lat. herba (erba, C. I. L. III. p. 1187), Ital. pop. erva, Rom. ierba (TN – grass).
The Arvali Brothers
first invoke the help of the Larii (the shepherd gods), then address to Mars
their first prayer, not to let them without grasses, or pastures, one of the great necessities of antique life,
when flocks constituted almost the only way of subsistence of the entire
mankind.
We find the same
prayer also in Romanian folk verses, addressed to Caloian, in the month of May:
“let the greenery sprout”, “let the hayfields grow”, “and all the grasses” (Teodorescu, Poesii pop.211.212), similar to the prayer to Mars
which we find with Cato: “Utique tu…virgulta…grandire, beneque evenire
sinas”.
Neve
(nos)…sins incurrere in pleores or pleoris.
Here the last words have the meaning of incurrere
in periculis, an expression which is often repeated in the acts of the
Arvali brothers under the form: “eosque servaveris ex periculis” (Henzen,
Acta Fr. Arv. p. XLI, CVIII, CXIV, CXXV), the meaning of the words being: “and
do not let us fall in perils”. In Cato’s
prayer: “pastores pecuaque salva servassis”.
Satur
furere, are corrupt words, whose meaning is sacru(m) fecere. In the same report, the same words appear under
the forms sacrum fecisse and sacrum fecerunt. Probably in the sacred
books of the Arvali Brothers it had been written FVKERE (fecere) instead of FVRERE.
In more ancient
times, the letter C was represented
by K. But the inscriber in stone had
changed by mistake K into R, as results from a number of examples
which we find in the Arval inscriptions, like BERBER instead of BERBEK
lower on this page. The letter u of
“furere” (fukere) takes the place of a dark vowel, like in the Romanian
language “facura”. We have an analogous example in the word “semunis” (=
seminis), Romanian semente (TN – seeds).
Limen
Sali sta. True darkness, writes Lucian Muller. The words have been badly
separated, instead of “li mensa li sta”.
Without doubt here they refer to the sacred
table on which the sacrifice was made, “mensa sancta” = ara sacra (Henzen,
ibid. p. 29, CCXIV). The word sta is
a simple shortening, or the dialectal form of sancta, like in the Macedo-Romanian dialect “Stamaria” = Sfanta Maria (Papahagi,
Megl.-Rom. II. 118). We have only one difficulty here, presented by the
particle li before “mensa” and
“s(anc)ta”. This li corresponds in
any case to the Lat. in. In the same
report of the Arvali Brothers we also find the expression: “in mensa sacrum fecerunt” (Henzen, ibid. p. CLXXXVI). With Nevius (
The words Berber semunis alternei advocapit conctos will have to be separated
like: “berber semunis alternia duo
capit(e) onctos”. Here BERBER
with the letter R at the end is a
simple error of the inscriber, instead of BERBEK(es);
“semunis alternei” or “alterneia” = seminis altilanei, meaning rams from the seed, or race, of the
sheep with big wool. The words “duo
capit(e) onctos”, and not “(a)dvocapit
conctos” refer to the victims destined for the sacrifice. According to
archaic rite, the Arvali brothers sacrificed to Jove and Mars two rams with big
wool: Jovi verveces II (duos) altilaneos; Marti arietes altilaneos II (duos) (Henzen, ibid. p. CLXXXVI). “Capite onctos”, anointed on the heads,
meaning purified. Analogous expressions in the acts of the Arvali Brothers are:
“deas unquentaverunt”; “signisque unctis”; “boves feminas auro iunctas” = unctas (Henzen, ibid. p. CCIV, CLXXXI, CCXIV,
CCXXV).
Triumpe,
was a simple joyful exclamation during the dances which took place with the
occasion of the religious festivities. The meaning is explained in the acts of
the Arvalii by the verb “tripodare”,
We dance and thump (TN
– Noi jucam si tropaim,
And jump
and hop and thump… Si
sarim in hop si’n trop…
Little
thumping along the table Tropotel pe langa masa
Three times
along the table De
trei ori pe langa masa.
We have examined
here the obscure parts of this religious song, and we tried to establish the
true forms of some altered words, paying particular attention to the
expressions used in the acts of the Arvali Brothers. Our translation is
therefore the following:
Nos, vero, Lares juvate. Neve adimas herbas (i. e.
pascua) Marmar, (neve nos) sinas incurrere in periculis. Sacrum fecere Marti,
in mensa, in sancta, berbeces seminis altilanei duos, capite unctos, etc.