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VESPERTILIO.
The bat
Emblema. 61.
Assumpsisse suum volucri ex Mineide nomen,[1]
Socraticum autores Chaeroophonta ferunt.[2]
Fusca viro facies, & stridens vocula, tali
Hunc hominem potuit commaculare nota.
Writers tell us that Chaerephon, Socrates’ follower, got his particular name from the winged daughter of Minyas. It was his sallow complexion and squeaky little voice that gave rise to such a slur to sully his reputation.
1. For the transformation of the daughters of Minyas (the founder of the earliest race of Greeks) into bats - for refusing to worship Dionysus - see Ovid, Metamorphoses, 4.389ff.
2. Chaerophon, a distinguished disciple of Socrates, was nick-named ‘The Bat’ and ‘Boxwood’ for his pale complexion and poor health, supposedly brought on by excessive study. See Aristophanes, Aves, 1564; Philostratus, Vitae sophistarum, 1.482.
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Relating to the image:
- night [23R14] Search | Browse Iconclass
- full moon represented as face [24B21] Search | Browse Iconclass
- flying mammals: bat (+ postures, positions of animal(s)) [25F28(BAT)(+53)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- groups of trees [25G11] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- clouds [26A] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- study and diversion [49A1] Search | Browse Iconclass
- studying at night [49B4411] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Minyas' daughters changed into bats: having aroused Bacchus' anger by weaving instead of worshipping him, the daughters of Minyas, Leuconoe (Leucippe), Alcithoe and Arsippe, are changed into bats by the god (Ovid, Metamorphoses IV 399) [97CC7] Search | Browse Iconclass
- male persons from classical history (with NAME) representations to which the NAME of a person from classical history may be attached [98B(CHAEREPHON)3] Search | Browse Iconclass
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