Link to an image of this page [V1r p305]
Φιλαυτία
Self-satisfaction.
EMBLEMA LXIX.
Link to an image of this page [V1v p306]Quod nimium tua forma tibi, Narcisse, placebat,
In florem, & noti est versa stuporis olus.[1]
Ingenii est marcor, cladesque Φιλαυτία, doctos
Quae pessum plures datque, deditque viros:
Qui veterum abiecta methodo, nova dogmata quaerunt,
Nilque suas praeter tradere phantasias.
Because your beauty gave you too much satisfaction, Narcissus, it was turned both into a flower and into a plant of acknowledged insensibility. Self-satisfaction is the rot and destruction of the mind. Learned men in plenty it has ruined, and ruins still, men who cast off the method of teachers of old and aim to pass on new doctrines, nothing more than their own imaginings.
1. For the story of Narcissus, see Ovid, Metamorphoses, 3.344ff. On the flower, see Pliny, Natural History, 21.75.128: “there are two kinds of narcissus... The leafy one ... makes the head thick and is called narcissus from narce (‘numbness’), not from the boy in the story.” (cf. ‘narcotic’).
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- plain [25H16] Search | Browse Iconclass
- spring, source of river or stream [25H211] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- kneeling on both knees [31A2331] Search | Browse Iconclass
- head bent forward; bowing [31A244] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm held downwards [31A2515] Search | Browse Iconclass
- walking on the knees (+ variant) [31A27121(+0)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- Narcissus, gazing in a fountain, falls in love with his own reflection; possibly the nymph Echo peeps at the scene [95A(NARCISSUS)21] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- scholar, philosopher [49C30] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Fantasy, Caprice; 'Capriccio' (Ripa) [52A44] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Folly, Foolishness; 'Pazzia', 'Sciocchezza', 'Stoltitia' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [52AA51(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Narcissism (+ emblematical representation of concept) [56F241(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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Section: FOLLIE. View all emblems in this section.
Link to an image of this page [F4v p88]
Sottie.
Apostrophe.
T’esbahis tu, si Ote je te nomme,
Quoy que tu sois des Otons extraict homme?
Ote oyseau ha d’oreille, & plume autant
Qu’une chouette:[1] & est prinse en saultant:
Les folz aiséz à prendre[2] Otes on dict.
Pren donc ce nom pour toy, car il te duyct.
Cest Embleme ne vient pas proprement
au Francois: comme au Latin, pour ne
pouvoir rendre une certaine allusion de
noms Latins, aulxquelz les François ne
peuvent correspondre. Mais en somme il
signifie que à un sot, nom sot est con-
venable.
1. See Pliny, Natural History, 11.50.137: only the eagle-owl and the long-eared owl have feathers like ears (the little owl - chouette - does not in fact have ear-tufts).
2. See Pliny, Natural History, 10.33.68: ‘The otus is an imitator of other birds and a hanger-on, performing a kind of dance; like the little owl, it is easily caught, when its attention is fixed on one person while another person circles round it’. See also Plutarch, Moralia, Bruta animalia ratione uti, 951E.
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- fowling, fowler [43C13] Search | Browse Iconclass
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