Link to an image of this page [Fff8v p832]
Mulieris famam, non formam, vulgatam
esse oportere.
A woman’s reputation, not her beauty, should be known to the world.
EMBLEMA CXCVI.
DIALOGISMUS.
A dialogue.
Alma Venus, quaenam haec facies? quid denotat illa
Testudo, molli quam pede Diva premis?
Me sic effinxit Phidias,[1] sexumque referri
Foemineum nostra iussit ab effigie:
Quodque manere domi, & tacitas decet esse puellas,
Supposuit pedibus talia signa meis.
Kindly Venus, what form is this, what does that tortoise mean, on which, o goddess, your soft feet rest? Phidias fashioned me like this. He intended the female sex to be represented by this image of me. Girls should stay at home and keep silence, and so he put such symbols under my feet.
1. Phidias’ statue of Aphrodite with one foot on a tortoise, set up at Elis, is mentioned by Pausanias, Periegesis 6.25.1. The tortoise is a symbol of ideal female domesticity, as it keeps silent and never leaves its house see Plutarch Coniugalia praecepta 32 (Mor. 142).
Related Emblems
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Relating to the image:
- animals (+ wings of an animal) [25F(+342)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- tortoises, turtles (+ animals used symbolically) [25F44(+1)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- tortoises, turtles (+ animal(s) being wounded) [25F44(+62)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm stretched forward (+ indicating, pointing at) [31A2512(+931)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm held downwards [31A2515] Search | Browse Iconclass
- bent legs extended forwards or backwards, with knee or foot placed on an elevation - AA - female human figure [31AA2622] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trampling, treading, stamping on someone or something - AA - female human figure [31AA2726] Search | Browse Iconclass
- boy (child between toddler and youth) (+ nude human being) [31D11221(+89)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- adult woman (+ nude human being) [31D15(+89)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- bedroom [41A23] Search | Browse Iconclass
- hangings and drapery [41A422] Search | Browse Iconclass
- bed [41A761] Search | Browse Iconclass
- pillow [41A7632] Search | Browse Iconclass
- drapery, draped garment, 'Gewandgebung' [41D27] Search | Browse Iconclass
- housewife [42F10] Search | Browse Iconclass
- archer's weapons: bow [45C15(ARROW)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- archer's weapons: bow [45C15(BOW)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- quiver [45C23] Search | Browse Iconclass
- piece of sculpture, reproduction of a piece of sculpture [48C24] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (story of) Venus (Aphrodite) [92C4] Search | Browse Iconclass
- other specific aspects of Venus (with NAME) [92C473(DOMESTICA)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- attributes of Venus: turtle [92C48(TURTLE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- other non-aggressive activities of Cupid [92D156] Search | Browse Iconclass
- attributes of Cupid (with NAME) [92D18(ARROW)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- attributes of Cupid (with NAME) [92D18(BOW)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- attributes of Cupid (with NAME) [92D18(QUIVER)] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- Beauty; 'Bellezza' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [51D4(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Taciturnity; 'Secretezza', 'Secretezza overo Taciturnità' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [52DD3(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Good Behaviour (+ emblematical representation of concept) [57A1(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Fame; 'Fama', 'Fama buona', 'Fama chiara' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [59B32(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- historical person (with NAME) [61B2(PHIDIAS)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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