Carmen Arvale

The "Carmen Arvale" is the preserved chant of the Arval priests or "Fratres Arvales" of ancient Rome.

The Arval priests were devoted to the goddess Dea Dia, and offered sacrifices to her to ensure the fertility of ploughed fields (Latin "arvum"). There were twelve Arval priests, chosen from patrician families. During the Roman Empire the Emperor was always an Arval priest. They retained the office for life, even if disgraced or exiled. Their most important festival, the Ambarvalia, occurred during the month of May, in a grove dedicated to Dea Dia.

The "Carmen Arvale" is preserved in an inscription of AD 218, but is in a more archaic stage of Old Latin, likely not fully understood any more at the time the inscription was made. It goes:

:"enos Lases iuvate":"enos Lases iuvate":"enos Lases iuvate"

:"neve lue rue Marmar sins incurrere in pleoris":"neve lue rue Marmar sins incurrere in pleoris":"neve lue rue Marmar sins incurrere in pleoris"

:"satur fu, fere Mars, limen sali, sta berber":"satur fu, fere Mars, limen sali, sta berber":"satur fu, fere Mars, limen sali, sta berber"

:"semunis alterni advocapit conctos":"semunis alterni advocapit conctos":"semunis alterni advocapit conctos"

:"enos Marmor iuvato":"enos Marmor iuvato":"enos Marmor iuvato"

:"triumpe triumpe triumpe triumpe triumpe"

While passages of this text are obscure, the traditional interpretation makes the chant a prayer to seek aid of Mars and the Lares ("lases"), beseeching Mars not to let plagues or disasters overtake in the fields, asking him to be satiated, and dance, and call forth the "Semones", who may represent sacred sowers. [Frederic De Forest Allen, "Remnants of Early Latin" (Boston: Ginn & Heath 1880 and Ginn & Co 1907).] (Cf. Semo Sancus, a god of agriculture and fidelity.)

ee also

*Carmen (verse)
*Roman Triumph

References