No More Learning

Now, when we remember the Lares Consitivi and the Semones, does it not
look very much as though _satur_ stood for _sator_, as though _fere_
were a blunder for _sere_, as though _saii_ were the vocative of Saius,
'sower' (cf. Seia a goddess of sowing, and Greek σάω σήθω), as though
_sia_ were the imperative of the verb _sio_ (moisten)[22], and as
though, finally, _berber_ were to be connected with the Greek βόρβορυς
and meant 'loam'? (I would give much the same sense, 'fat soil' to
_limen_: (from the root _lib-_: cf. Gk. λείβω λειμών). )

We get, then,

sator fu: sere Mars limen Saii, sia berber,

'Be thou the sower: sower Mars, sow the soil, moisten the loam'. And
this suggests what _ought_ to be the meaning of _enos iuuate_. _enos_
_ought_ to mean _harvests_, or at any rate something in that kind. And
why should it not? Hesychius knew a word ἔνος which he glosses by
ἐνιαυτός, ἐπέτειος καρπός. See Suidas _s. v. _ and Herwerden _Lexicon
Suppletorium_.

The Hymn is a hymn for Seedtime. We know, however, that the festival at
which it was sung fell in the month of May.
The explanation of this has
been hinted at by Henzen. [23] Henzen points out that the Arval Brothers
entered on their duties at the Saturnalia, and that their worship is
probably connected in its origin with Saturn, the god of sowing. (See
Varro _L. L. _ 5, 57, and _apud_ Aug. _C. D. _ 7. 13 p. 290, 28, Festus
_s. v. _ Saturnus. ) We must suppose, therefore, that at some date when the
meaning of its words had been already lost this hymn was transferred
from a seedtime festival to a harvest festival.




GLOSSARY OF OLD LATIN

1.

_i. _

cante: _cante_ (sometimes said to be an Athematic imper.