post hoc ludus erat culpa potare magistra
ac venerata Ceres, ita culmo surgeret alto,
explicuit vino contractae seria frontis.
Translation:
after this game time took place [ wild guess: with riotous drinking games]
and after Ceres [was] entreated, that she would grow-forth on tall stem,
she cleared the troubles from the clenched brow with wine.
These three lines presented several problems for me.
culpa potare magistra: I guess this is an idiom denoting a drinking game.
surgeret: why not surgo? It seems to me to be indirect discourse. The grain goddess Ceres, as I understand, is being taken metaphorically as the growth-process in the stalks, as well as a divine person who can be prayed to.
venerata: should the reader supply est, to make venerata est? Or should we read it erat . . . venerata?
seria: I read this accusative, plural, neuter, of the adjective serius, -a, -um, used substantively.
You’ve got most. I don’t understand many cultural ramifications and rules of a drinking spree, but culpā magistrā (“blame being the leaderess”) means without an MC (generally there was one). Horace commentator Pomponius Porphyrio says, ‘si quando libere potare uolebant antiqui, id est sine archiposia, dicebant se magistram facere culpam.’
As you’ve noticed, the deponent uenerari has here passival force. The conjunctive expresses what is worshipped from the goddess. Doesn’t your translation exactly suggest (‘would’) the conjuctive we have?
Seria is an adjective substantivised just as you said. OLD has “gravity of expression or conduct”.
Thanks Timothée for the commentary. I understand most of what you wrote, but two points remain.
conjunctive is a new term for me, but it seems pretty important in your commentary. Can you point me to an explanation?
As I understand the grammar books, infinitive plus subject accusative is regular for the main clause in indirect discourse. But in the passage under study, Horace uses the imperfect subjunctive surgeret. Can you get me sorted out on this?
“Conjunctive” – Timothée means “subjunctive” (konjunctiv in German).
surgeret – subjunctive rather than accusative + infinitive because this isn’t a statement, it’s what they prayed for, i.e., that she should rise etc. An indirect command or request.
Got it Hylander; many thanks, especially for noting that indirect commands/requests/prayers must be distinguished from indirect discourse, which I had overlooked in this query.