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TheCarmen Arvale is the preserved chant of theArval priests orFratres Arvales ofancient Rome.[1]
The Arval priests were devoted to thegoddessDia, and offered sacrifices to her to ensure thefertility of ploughed fields (Latinarvum). There were twelve Arval priests, chosen frompatrician families. During theRoman Empire theEmperor was always an Arval priest. They retained the office for life, even if disgraced or exiled. Their most important festival, theAmbarvalia, occurred during the month of May, in a grove dedicated to Dia.
TheCarmen Arvale is preserved in an inscription dating from 218 AD, which contains records of the meetings of the Arval Brethren. It is written in an archaic form ofOld Latin, likely not fully understood any more at the time the inscription was made.[2]
One of its interpretations goes as follows:[note 1]
While passages of this text are obscure, the traditional interpretation makes the chant a prayer to seek aid ofMars and theLares (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.[4] (Cf.Semo Sancus, a god of good faith.)Semones are minortutelary deities, in particularSancus,Priapus,Faunus, allVertumni, allSilvani,Bona Dea.[5] The semones are probably the hidden life forces residing in seeds: they were presented as only offering milk in the earliest tradition.[6]
limen sali, sta means "jump over the beam of the threshold/door/lintel, stand" in standard Latin.[7]