Ode XXVII
Far be the barbarous Thracian dissonance and the Persian dirk from our sober revels. And if I am to crush a cup with you, the brother of pretty Opuntian Megilla must reveal to us the lady of his secret thoughts. Surely he need not blush to name her.—Ah, poor fellow! with what a Charybdis were you struggling! No Thessalian witch will deliver you from that monster.A verse exercise. The details are Greek, except Falerni (10). Cf. Anacreon, fr. 63.
natis: born for, made for, meant for. Cf. A. P. 82, natum rebus agendis.—scyphis: abl. of instrument. Cf. Lucian, Symp 14 and 44. Anth. Pal. 11. 59, εἰλαπίνη κοπελλομάχος.
Thracum: cf. on 1. 18. 9.—tollite: away with. Cf. 2. 5. 9.
morem: in bad sense. Cf. Livy, 34. 2. 9, qui hic mos obsidendi vias.—verecundum: cf. 1. 18. 7, modici Liberi. The idea of the god and the use of his gifts blends. For whole passage cf. 3. 8. 15.
prohibete: defend; so, with seeming reversal of natural syntax, corpus prohibere cheragra (Epist. 1. 1. 31).
vino: dat. Horace said 'different to.' Cf. 2. 2. 18; 4. 9. 29.—acinaces: has a distinguished foreign sound.
inirnane quantum: a stereotyped phrase, used parenthetically and not affecti~g the structure of the sentence; lit., (it is) prodigious how much; cf. mirum quantum, ἀμήχανον ὅσον and Milton's 'incredible how swift.' .
cubito . . . presso: with left arm pressed into cushion of couch by weight of body. . In Petron. Sat. 27, hic est apud quem cubitum ponetis means 'this is your entertainer.'
severi: strong, δριμέος; they were drinking dry, not sweet, Falernian. Cf. Athen. 1 . 26 c. Seven as contrasted with the innocentis Lesbii of 1. 17. 21. Cf. Catull. 27. 2, calices amariores.
dicat: challenges to name a toast were common at banquets. Cf. Theoc. 14. 18; Martial, 1. 71.
The details individualize. Cf. on 3. 9. 14; 2. 4. 2; 2. 5. 20; 3. 12. 6; 3. 9. 9. Opus was a town in Locris.
beatus . . . pereat: the poets abuse oxymoron in describing what Thomson calls 'the charming agonies of love.' Cf. Romeo and Juliet, 1. 1, 'O heavy lightness, serious vanity,' etc. Pereat is technical in the lover's dialect. Cf. Catull. 45. 5; Propert. 1. 4. 12. Volnere, sagitta, ignibus (15) are all worn-out metaphors of love. Cf. Lucret. 1. 34; Verg. Aen. 4. 2; Eurip. Medea, 530, 632; Odes 3. 7. 11. n.; 2. 8. 15. 13. mercede: condition.—cessat voluntas? he won't? his will pauses, halts, flags. For force of cesso, cf. Verg. Aen. 6. 52, cessas in vota precesque; Odes 3. 27. 58; 3. 28. 8; Marvell, Ode on Cromwell, 'So restless Cromwell could not cease | In the inglorious arts of peace.'
Venus: love; used definitely of the object of his affection; cf. 1. 33. 13.
erubescendis: cf. 2. 4. 20, pudenda.
ingenuo . . . amore: for a free-born love, abl. of cause (cf. 1. 33. 9); amore, like Venus above, is used of the person; ingenuo is employed banteringly; she is no servant maid like the flava Phyllis of 2. 4.
peccas: technical. Cf. on 3. 7. 19.—quidquid habes: cf. Catull. 6. 15, quare quidquid habes boni malique | dic nobis.
depone: he asks the culprit to whisper the secret to him, even if he is unwilling to tell the whole company; in Sat. 2. 6. 46, Horace modestly says that his great friend Maecenas confides to him only those secrets, quae rimosa bene deponuntur in aure.—a miser: after a pause in which the name is told.
laborabas: all the while, though we knew it not; the effect of ἄρα of surprised recognition with impf. in Greek.—Charybdi: the comparison of a ruthless coquette to a gulf, abyss, or whirlpool was as familiar to the Athens of the new comedy as it is to modern Paris. Cf. Anaxilas apud Athen. 13. 558 A.
flamma: dangerously like the images to which Quintilian objects that begin with a storm and wind up with a conflagration.
Thessalis: Thessaly was the land of brewed enchantments. Cf. Propert. 1. 5. 6, et bibere e tota toxica Thessalia. Epode 5. 45.
venenis: potions, philters, not necessarily poisons. So φάρμακα in Greek.
triformi: Il. 6. 181; Lucret. 5. 902, prima leo, postrema draco, media ipsa, Chimaera.
Bellerophon mounted on the winged steed Pegasus slew the Chimaera (Pind. O. 13. 90), but from the toils of this Chimaera of a flirt even Pegasus could not free you.
Chimaera: with both illigatum and expediet. For Pegssus, cf. 4. 11. 28. n.
