
SEMPER PRAESTO ESSE IN-
fortunia.
Misfortune is always at hand
Emblema 128.
Ludebant parili tres olim aetate puellae
Sortibus, ad stigias quae prior iret aquas.
At cui iactato male cesserat alea talo,
Ridebat sortis caeca puella suae:
Cum subito icta caput labente est mortua tecto,
Solvit & audacis debita fata ioci:
Rebus in adversis mala sors non fallitur: Ast in
Faustis, nec precibus, nec locus est manui.[1]
Once three girls of the same age were amusing themselves, casting lots to see which of them would be the first to go to the waters of the Styx. When the dice were cast, the throw fell out unluckily for one of them, but she laughed with blind contempt at the fate predicted for her. Then suddenly she died, struck on the head as the roof fell in, and so paid the fated penalty for her bold mockery. In misfortune, a bad omen cannot be eluded, but even in prosperity neither prayers nor action have any place.
1. This is a translation of Anthologia graeca 9.158.
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- index finger forwards, pointing, indicating [31A25552] Search | Browse Iconclass
- sitting on an elevation - AA - female human figure [31AA2352] Search | Browse Iconclass
- one leg in front of the other - AA - female human figure (+ sitting) [31AA2621(+53)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- looking upwards [31B6211] Search | Browse Iconclass
- adult woman (+ three persons) [31D15(+73)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- living-room, parlour, sitting-room [41A221] Search | Browse Iconclass
- window [41A33] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- head-gear (+ women's clothes) [41D221(+82)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- lion's head ~ ornament [48A9843] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- tiles, bricks ~ building material [47G532] Search | Browse Iconclass
- collapsing building (+ variant) [47G91(+0)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Weakness, Powerlessness, Helplessness; 'Infermitą' (Ripa) [54AA7] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- Mortality, Extinction of Life [58BB1] Search | Browse Iconclass
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MALE PARTA MALE DILA-
buntur.[1]
Ill gotten, ill spent
Emblema 127
Miluus edax,[2] nimiae quem nausea torserat escae,
Hei mihi mater, ait, viscera ab ore fluunt.
Illa autem, quid fles? cur haec tua viscera credas,
Qui rapto vivens sola aliena vomis?
A voracious kite, which had eaten too much, was racked with vomiting. ‘O dear, mother’, it said, ‘entrails are pouring out of my mouth.’ She however replied: ‘What are you crying about? Why do you think these are your entrails? You live by plunder and vomit only what belongs to others.’
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- trees (+ stem, trunk) [25G3(+21)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- clouds [26A] Search | Browse Iconclass
- vomiting (+ variant) [31A63(+0)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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