fascinum
Quod ut superbo provoces ab inguine,
Ore allaborandum est tibi.
(a member ... that needs, for you to provoke it to rise from the unsympathetic groin, to be worked with your mouth). Ovid’s phrase “dulce opus” (sweet task) and Horace’s “molle opus” (gentle task) are familiar. Comp. Hesychius, s.v. ἀῤῥητουργία,—αἰσχρουργία, κακουργία, τὰ ἀῤῥητα ἐργάζεσθαι, (under the word ἀῤῥητουργία, infamous action,—base action, evil action, the performance of infamous tasks).
[15] The word στόμαργος is found in Sophocles, in a passage where Electra says to Clytaemnestra (581):
Κήρυσσέ μ’εἰς ἅπαντας, εἴτε χρὴ, κακὴν,
εἴτε στόμαργον, εἴτ’ἀναιδείας πλέαν.
Εἰ γὰρ πέφυκα τῶνδε τῶν ἔργων ἴδρις
σχεδόν τι τὴν σὴν οὐ καταισχύνω φύσιν.
(Proclaim me to all, if need be, an evil woman, foul-mouthed and full of shamelessness. For if I am cunning in these tasks, it is but that I am not far from sharing your own character). Suidas under the word interprets στόμαργος here by φλύαρος (prating). Philo, De Monarchia bk. I. edit. Mangey, vol. II. p. 219., says: στομαργίᾳ χρήσασθαι καὶ ἀχαλίνῳ γλώσσῃ, βλασφημοῦντας οὓς ἕτεροι νομίζουσι θεούς. (to indulge in loose talking and an unbridled tongue, blaspheming such as other men hold to be gods). The Etymologicum Magnum s. v. γλώσσαργον, στόμαργον ἠ ταχύγλωσσον, (under the word idle-tongued,—foul-mouthed or loose-tongued). Whereas Aristophanes has the word στοματουργός, “Frogs” 848.,