Link to an image of this page [E8v]
EI QUI SEMEL SUA PRO-
degerit aliena credi non
oportere.
Others’ property should not be entrusted to a person who has once squandered his own
Cholchidos in gremio nidum quid congeris? heu
Nescia cur pullos tam male credis avis.
Dira parens Medaea suos saevissima natos
Perdidit, & speras parcat ut illa tuis.[1]
Why do you build your nest in the bosom of the woman from Colchis? Alas, ignorant bird, why do you entrust your nestlings so mistakenly? That frightful mother, Medea, in her savagery slew her own children. Do you expect her to spare yours?
1. This is based on Anthologia graeca 9.346, a much-translated epigram, on the subject of a swallow that built her nest on a representation of Medea. Colchidos, ‘of the woman from Colchis’, refers to Medea, from Colchis on the Black Sea, who slew her children by Jason, leader of the Argonauts, to avenge his unfaithfulness. See further [A31a034].
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- arm stretched forward (+ holding something) [31A2512(+933)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm or hand held in front of the body (+ holding something) [31A2516(+933)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- infant, baby ~ the ages of man [31D111] Search | Browse Iconclass
- child (+ nude human being) [31D112(+89)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- adult woman [31D15] Search | Browse Iconclass
- violent death by dagger, knife [31E234632] Search | Browse Iconclass
- dress, gown (+ women's clothes) [41D211(+82)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- mother and baby or young child [42A3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- killing a child (absence of parental love) [42B29] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Medea kills her two children; she flees from Corinth in a chariot drawn by winged dragons (+ variant) [94A74(+0)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- birds (+ animals nesting; making nests, lodges, webs, etc.) [25F3(+4712)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- monument, statue [25I152] Search | Browse Iconclass
- piece of sculpture, reproduction of a piece of sculpture [48C24] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Squandering, Extravagance, Prodigality, Waste; 'Prodigalit�' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [55C11(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Misplaced Trust, False Confidence, 'Pax Falsa'; 'Speranza fallace' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [56D29(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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Link to an image of this page [F1v]
MULIERIS FAMAM NON
formam vulgatam esse
oportere.
A woman’s reputation, not her beauty, should be known to the world.
Alma Venus quae nam 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).
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- tortoises, turtles (+ animals used symbolically) [25F44(+1)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- arm stretched forward (+ holding something) [31A2512(+933)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm held downwards [31A2515] Search | Browse Iconclass
- index finger forwards, pointing, indicating [31A25552] Search | Browse Iconclass
- one leg in front of the other - AA - female human figure (+ standing) [31AA2621(+51)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trampling, treading, stamping on someone or something - AA - female human figure [31AA2726] Search | Browse Iconclass
- adult woman [31D15] Search | Browse Iconclass
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