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Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

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TA PRAYER TO ALL H1:RBSthee, (ioddess, vouchsafe to me \villingly. All herbssoever which thy majesty " engendereth, for health'ssake thou bestowest upon every race : entrust to menow this healing virtue of thine : let healing come <strong>with</strong>thy powers: Mhate'er I do in consonance there<strong>with</strong>,let it have favourable issue : to Avhomso I give thosesame powers or whoso shall receive the same fromDie, all such do thou make whole. Finally now, OGoddess, let thy majesty vouchsafe to me what Iask of thee in prayer.A PRAYER TO ALL HERBSWith all you potent herbs do I now intercede<strong>and</strong> to your majesty make my appeal : ye wereengendered by Mother Earth, <strong>and</strong> given for a giftto all. On you she has conferred the healing whichmakes whole, on you high excellence, so that to allmankind you may be time <strong>and</strong> again an aid mostserviceable. This in suppliant wise I implore <strong>and</strong>entreat : hither, hither swiftly come <strong>with</strong> all yourpotency, forasmuch as the very one who gave youbirth has granted me leave to gather you : he alsoto whom the healing art is entrusted has shown hisfavour.^ As far as your potency now extends, vouchsafesound healing for health's sake. Bestow on me,I pray, favour by your potency, that in all things,whatsoever I do according to your will, or for what-" maiestas tua (in lines 25 <strong>and</strong> .32) sounds post-Augustanmaipstas had already become a title of respect for an emperorin Phaedrus II. 5. 23. Cf. in the following poem, maiestatPtnVf.stram addressed to the herbae in line 2 :cf. lines 5 <strong>and</strong> 18<strong>and</strong> Juvenal's tcmplorum qnoque maiestas praesentior, XI. Ill,for a " mystic presence" in temples.**i.e. Paean, Apollo as deity of healing.345

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