Ode XXVII
Bad omens for the bad. All good omens go with thee, Galatea, since go thou must; be happy and forget me not. I know the terrors of the wintry Adriatic; but may the wives and children of our foes tremble at them--even as Europa trembled; and with this forced transition Horace passes to his real theme, the rape of Europa (25-34), her self-reproachful soliloquy far from home on the Cretan shore (34-66), her consolation by Venus (66-76). Galatea (the name Theoc. 6 and 11, Callim.) is a pretext. The ode (in this unlike Pindar) closes with the myth, one aspect of which is chosen for detailed lyric treatment. Cf. the structure of 3.11 and 3.5. But in 4.4.72 and 1.12.49, Horace returns after the myth (history) to the person honored. For propempticon to a lady, cf. Ov. Am. 2.11; Propert. 1.8. For legend of Europa, cf. Il.14.321; Mosch. Idyll. 2; Ov. Met. 2.836; Fast. 5.605; Lucian, Dial. Mer. 15; Anacreontea, 35. It had been treated also in lyric by Stesichorus, Baechylides, and Simonides. Cf. further Spenser, Muiopotmos, F. Q. 3.11.30; Landor, Europa and her Mother; Tenn. Palace of Art. There is an amusing travesty of the myth by Bürger. It has been a favorite theme of art in ancient and modern times.
impios: the wicked, emphatic, as hostium (21), in antithesis with ego (7). The powers of evil are to spend their malice on the wicked; I will invoke the good to guard thee. parrae: unknown ; owl will do. recinentis: probably of insistent droning repetition. 'The moping owl does to the moon complain.' Cf. 1.12.3. The omens mentioned are 'signs seen on the way,' ἐνόδιοι σύμβολιο (Aesch. Prom. 487).
ducat: attend.
rava: Epode 16.33, ravos leones, tawny, fire-eyed. Lanuvium lay on a height (decurrens), about a mile east of the Appian Way, the route to Brundisium and Greece.
rumpat: it is quibbling to object that the same journey cannot be attended and broken off by bad omens. If Galatea was superstitious, she would turn back and start with happier auspices. Gaston Boissier, Religion Romaine, 1.15.
per obliquum: i.e. darting athwart. similis sagittae: Aeschylus, Eumen. 181, calls the arrow πτηνὸν ἀργηστὴν ὄφιν. Dante, Inferno, 25, Come il ramarro . . . Folgore par, se la via attraversa. ibid. 8.13; Verg. G. 4.313.
mannos: Gallic ponies, Epode 4.14. n. cui: i.e. ei cui timebo . . . suscitabo (11).
providus: far-seeing.
In writing Sapphics it is often necessary to choose between giving nothing or an entire strophe to the expression of an idea. Hence perhaps this awkward expansion of the simple thought, 'I will prevent (anticipate) bad omens with good.' stantis: stagnant. Or does it suggest the dead lull before the shower? For the signs of rain, cf, Arat. Phaen. 949; Verg. G. 1. 388. repetat: shall revisit.
divina: prophetic of. The avis is the crow; cf. 3.17.12; Lucret. 5.1083; A. P.218, divina futuri; Milton, P. L. 9, 'Yet oft his heart, divine of something ill'; ibid. 7, (birds) that 'wedge their way intelligent of seasons.' Verg. G. 1.415 denies that it is quia sit divinitus illis |ingenium.
oscinem: technically oscen was a divining bird from whose notes auguries are taken, as opposed to praepes, one whose flight was significant.
solis ab ortu: the lucky quarter. As the augur faced the south, the east was on his left; hence laevus = lucky. Cf. 26.5. Generally, however, the Augustan poets follow Greek usage, according to which the right is the lucky side, the left unlucky, e.g. laevus, 15, boding ill. Cf. Verg. Ecl. 9. 15, sinistra cornix. With solis ab, 4. 15. 16.
sis: optative. licet per me licet, parenthetic, so far as I am concerned. Cf. Propert. 1.8.17, sed quocumque modo de me periura mereris,| Sit Galatea tuae non aliena viae. The smooth sweetness of this strophe seems intentional.
memor nostri: a formula. Cf. 3. 11. 51. n.
vaga: on the wing--to the pools (10). Cf. 4.4.2. n.
pronus: setting. Cf. 1. 29. 11, 4.6.39, for other uses of the hardworked word. Orion: 1.28.21. n. quid sit ater Hadriae sinus: all about Hadria's black gulf, i.e. the Adriatic. Galatea's itinerary apparently was along the Appian Way (cf. Lanuvino, 3) to Brundisium and then across to Greece. For this use of quid sit cf. Sat. 1.6.15; Epp. 1.11.7. Ater refers to the darkness of the storm. Cf. 2. 16. 2; Macaulay cited on 1. 3. 20, and Regillus 36, 'So comes the squall blacker than night| Upon the Adrian main' ; or, when its waves blacken under the wind (1.5.7. n.; Verg. Aen. 3.195), so contrasting with the bright sky overhead (albus Iapyx, 1.7.15).
novi: from experience; he had crossed to Greece. Cf. also 2.6.7; 3.4.28. sinus: Epode 10.19; Catull. 4.9, trucemve Ponticum sinum; F. Q. 2.7.14, 'And in frail wood on Adrian gulf doth fleet.'
quid . . . peccet: his misdeeds; possibly his treachery. Cf. Lucret. 2.557.
Iapyx: 1.3.4.
hostium: hostibus eveniat was almost proverbial. Cf. Ov. A. A. 3.247; Propert. 4.7.20; Verg. G. 3.513. See 1.21. 13-16; Apoll. Rhod. 4.448, δυσμενέων ἐπὶ παισίν caecos: un(fore)seen, i.e. squalls. Cf. 2. 13. 16, caeca . . . fata; Verg. Aen. 3.200, caecis erramus in undis, 'where no way appears'; cf. Tenn. Talking Oak, 'those blind motions of the spring, | That show the year is turned.'
sentiant: 2.7.10; 4.4.25. orientis: surgentis normal of wind. Cf. Verg. Aen. 3.481, surgentis Austros.
nigri: 1.5.7. n. Note the r-sounds. Cf. Pope, 'But when loud surges lash the sounding shore |The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar.'
verbere: cf. 3.1. 29; 3. 12. 3; Verg. Aen. 3.423 et sidera verberat unda; Ov. Trist. 1. 4.8; Procl. Hymn. 6 Κῦμα |πάντα πολυφλοίσβοισιν ἑοῖς ῥεέθροισιν ἰμάσσον.The wind lashing the waves is more common. Cf. Anth. Pal. 5. 180.5; 7.696; Lucret. 6.115.
doloso credidit: see 1.6.9. n.; 3.5.33.
latus: 2.7.18.
scatentem beluis: 1.3.18; 4.14.47.
medias fraudes: the perils that surrounded her. She had come into the midst of dangers.
palluit audax: but now so bold, paled with fear at. So expalluit trans., Epist. 1.3. 10. Contrast the oxymoron of 3.20.3. Cf. Ov. Met. 2.860, metuit contingere primo; 868~69, ausa est . . . tergo considere tauri; 873, Pavet haec, litusque ablata reliclum| respicit.
nuper: pointing the contrast between the picture in 29-30 and that in 31-32. studiosa: puellari studio, Ov. Met. 5.393, of Proserpina in like case.
debitae: 1.36.2; 2.7.17.
sublustri: glimmering; Verg. Aen. 9.373, sublustri noctis in umbra; Shaks. M. N. Dream, 2.1, 'Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night?' These two lines follow Moschus, 2.127. Cf. Spenser, Muiopotmos 'But (Lord!) how she in every member shook,| When as the land she saw no more appear, |But a wild wilderness of waters deep:| Then 'gan she greatly to lament and weep.' 33 sqq. The bull vanishes, and Venus consoles the consciencestricken maid, pending the return of the god in his proper shape. Moschus, 2. 158, and Lucian, Dial. Mar. 15, are more direct.
simul: 1.9.9. n. centum, etc.: Homer's Κρήτη ἑκατόμπολις, Il.2, 649, was a literary commonplace; Epode 9.29; Verg. Aen. 3.106; Sen. Tro. 830, urbibus centum spatiosa Crete; 'In the hundred cities of Crete such glory was not of old,' Swinb. Ode on Insurrection in Candia.
pater: in Homer, I1. 14. 321, Phoenix; in Ovid and Lucian, Agenor.
filiae: genitive, she breaks off incoherently: 'Father -nay, I have renounced the name of daughter.' Cf. Andromache's cry, Il. 22.477, Ἕκτορ, ἐγὼ δύστηνος; Eurip. Medea, 166. Note the nominatives in exclamation.
victa: Ov. Met. 13.663, victa metu pietas.
unde quo: the eager Greek double interrog. of excitement, τίς πόθεν, and the like; Verg. Aen. 10. 670, quo feror, unde abii. But there may be also a hint of the Greek, ἀπὸ οἵας . . . ἐς ιὁιαν (Thucyd. 7.75), i.e. from that flowery mead to this desolate shore. una mors: seems quasi-proverbial, like Greek 'die many times.' Cf. Propert. 5.4,17, et satis una malae potuit mors esse puellae?
virginum: a maiden's; the plural generalizes and softens. culpae: dat.; see 3.6.17. vigilans, etc.: do I wake, or am I innocent, and is it all a dream?
vitiis: suggests and avoids vitio.
ludit: 3.4.5; Verg. Aen. 1.408.
vana quae: cf. nota quae, 1.2.10; proxima quae, Verg. Aen. 3.397. Others, vana, quae against rhythm and idiom. eburna: the ivory gate of false dreams is well known from Verg. Aen. 6.898; Odyss. 19.562.
meliusne: self-taunting irony.
fluctus . . . longos: not Homer's κύματα μακρά, but the τόσην ἅλα of Moschus, 2.153. Cf. 3.3.37, longus pontus.
recentis: cf. 4.1.32. n.
siquis: Horace's familiarity with Greek makes it safe to say that this is a wish passing into a condition. The bull has disappeared.
lacerare: cf. 1.71; the big words, frangere, enitar, express the impotens ira of the petulant girl.
modo . . . amati: she had twined its horns with flowers. Ov. Met. 2.868; καὶ κύσε ταῦρον Mosch. 96.
impudens: cf. 3.11.30, impiae.
Orcum moror: to keep death or Charon waiting is a familiar expression in Greek. Eurip. Alcest. 255. Cf. 1.58, quid non cessas? Stat. Theb. 7. 364.
nuda: may, but need not, mean defenseless. With the whole cf. Catull. 45.6, Solus in Libya Indiaque tosta| caesio veniam obvius leoni; Shaks., All's Well, 3.2, 'better 'twere| I met the ravin lion when he roared |With sharp constraint of hunger.'
decentis: cf. 1.4.6. n.
sucus: she was still, like Sir John Suckling's 'Bride,' and the gi~ in Terence, corpus solidum et suci plenum (Ter. Eun. 318). Cf. arida, 2.11.6; ὀπὸς ἤβης. Anth. Pal. 5.258.
tenerae praedae: with self-pity she so designates herself; dative with defluat, from. speciosa: still fair. A solicitude avowed by Sir John Falstaff ('a death that I abhor; for the water swells a man') may be permitted a coquettish girl. But the feeling is a 'survival' of primitive beliefs. Cf. Odyss. 11; Verg. Aen. 6.494; Soph. Antig. 817; Stat. Silv. 2.1.154; Chariton, 1.5.7, θάψωμεν Καλλιῤῥόην ἔτι καλήν; F. Q. 1.10.42, 'Ah, dearest God, me grant, I dead be not defoul'd!'
pater urget: his stern image pursues her; but the words that follow belong still to her soliloquy. For urget, cf. 1.22.20; Ep. 17.25; Milton, P. L. 1, 'but torture without end | still urges.'
potes hac . . . zona: everything is ready.
bene: to good purpose; bitter irony. Cf. non bene, 2. 7.10. The zone was the symbol of maidenhood. Odyss. 11. 245; Catull. 2. 13.
laedere collum: perhaps intentional understatement. But we must not overinterpret. The prosaic elidere fauces would be hard to manage. Cf. 2.13.6. n. The heroines of Greek tragedy choose hanging as method of suicide.
sive: 1.15.25. rupes, etc.: the cliffs and the jagged rocks below sharp for thy death. Cf. Io in Aesch. Prom. 748.
te . . . crede: commit thyself. procellae: the gale that will waft her out and down.
erile: set by a mistress. So erilis filius, master's son.
carpere pensum: to card the stint of wool, and aid the mistress in spinning, was the traditional task of the bond maiden. Il.6.456; Propert. 4.5.15.
regius sanguis: emphasizing the ignominy. So Creusa, Verg. Aen. 2.785-786, non ego . . . Graiis servitum matribus ibo| Dardanis et divae Veneris nurus. For sanguis, cf. 2.20.6; 4.2. 14. tradi: to her mercies. Cf. the treatment of An dromache by Hermione, Eurip. Andr.
barbarae: not Greek or Latin, 1.29.6. Europa herself is 'barbarian.' But Horace has the plaints of Greek tragedy in mind. Cf., however, 3.5.49; 4.12.7, 'cruel.' paelex: and hence an object of jealousy, 3.10.15; Epode 3.13. aderat: dramatically--we see her approach with mocking smile while the heroine declaims. perfidum: cf. 1.22.23; 2.12.14.
remisso . . . arcu: his bolt was shot. Somewhat differently Tenn. Eleanore, 7, 'His bow-string slacken'd, languid Love,| Leaning his cheek upon his hand,| Droops both his wings, regarding thee.'
lusit: Sc. Venus. irarum: see 2.9.17; 4.9. 38 for gen.
cum: tunc cum. laceranda, etc., mocking repetition of 45.
uxor . . . esse: by Greek idiom for te uxorem esse. But disce, below, favors 'knowest not how to comport thyself as.'
mitte: 3.8.17. 75, sectus orbis: half the world, which some divided into two parts (Sall. Jug. 17; Varro, L. L. 5.31; Isoc. Pan. 179; Pliny, N. H. 3.5); others into three (Pind. Pyth. 9.8; Cic. de Nat. Deor. 2.105; Ov. Fast. 5.017). In Moschus, she dreams that two continents contend for her.
nomina: 4.2.3. n.; Ov. Met. 15.90, nomen. ducet: take, so Sat. 2.1.60, duxit . . . nomen.
