Prayer to Carmenta

Hail, Carmentis, Goddess of song and prophecy. From Your father Sebathus, Telon, king of the Taphonians, took You away from the river shores of Naples to the isle of Capree, there as Bateia, wife of Oebalus, to become mother to Spartans and Sabines alike. From Campania You set sail with Your son Evander up the River Tiber, showing him where to make land, and teaching him the songs by which to found Paletum. In Your sacred grove beneath the Palatine Hill You sang as Nicostrate the rites by which Hercules was to honor His Father Jupiter. There, too, You met with Dardanian Aeneas, singing for him the vision of Rome that his generations would found upon the Septimonium. There in Your sacred grove you sang to the infant twins as they were nurtured by a she-wolf.