PALATVAE DIVAE

{The supplicant faces Northeast, assuming the "Y" posture, being
capite velato*, and recites these words:}

DOMINA, ANTIQVA, MATER VRBIS AETERNAE.
Lady!, Ancient One!, Mother of the Eternal City!

ADES! SALVE PALATVA
Be Thou present! Hail, O Palatua!

{supplicant performs the Adoratio, and continues:}

TE {touching breast) PRECOR QVAESOQVE
I pray and beseech Thee,

VT DES PACEM PROPITIA VENIAMQVE
that Thou mayest propitiously grant peace and favor

VRBI ET ORBI;
to the City and the World;

VTI NVNQVAM DESOLES TVAM POPVLVM ROMANVM,
that Thou mayest never abandon Thy Roman People,

HIC ET NVNCT VBICVMQVE ET SEMPER.
here and now, everywhere and always.

ERGO TIBI OFFERO HOC THVS:
Therefore, to Thee I offer this incense:

{The supplicant now offers a few grains of incense upon the fire ...
then concludes with the words:}

ITA EST! ILLICET.
So mote it be! So may it be granted!

{The rite is ended}

Nota Bene:

*capite velato: with the head veiled

About PALATVA:

She is not known well to modern scholarship, and may have been almost as mysterious to the Romans of old, who honored Her with service of a Flamen. I offer these scraps of knowledge with some speculation, seeking from Her the gift of insight that I may effectively offer honor and service to the credit of our Roman people.

* By linguistic connection, Palatua seems intimately connected with Pales, known separately from Italic and Etruscan traditions, and with Pallas Athena, whose sacred Palladium was carried by Aeneas from burning Troy.

* In this consideration, Palatua should be specially honored on two dates:

The Parilia, XI.KAL.MAI. (21 April), the traditional date of Rome's founding, in which milk and cakes were offered, and

Festival of the Pales, NON.IVL. (7 July), in conjunction with IVNO CAPROTINA, whose NONAE CAPROTINAE is a feast of the wild fig, recalling the serving women who thwarted an army's advance on Rome.

* What is completely certain about Palatua is her eternal guardianship of the famed Palatine Hill, the wellspring of our timeless civilization. Her name is the root of "palace", a supreme edifice of grandeur, and we may suggest further that Her connection to the Palatine parallels that of Quirinus to the Quirinal. Quirinus is sometimes identified with the deified Romulus, or Mars in His peaceful aspect. In Palatua I feel a harmony of the bucolic arts with those of more urbane nature, just as the Parilia celebrates the pastoral life of shepherds as well as the foundation of the City. It's intriguing to compare similar aspects in Magna Mater, whose Temple came naturally to grace the Palatine: her epithet of VRBIVM CONDITRIX and her love for and resurrection of the shepherd Attis.

* EX VOTO IVLIAE VOPISCAE FLAMINICAE PALATVALI *
Votive offering of Iulia Vopisca, Flaminica Palatuali

* ID OCT AVC MMDCCLV * 15 Oct 02 *

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