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
Relating to the text:
- 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 [D4v f15v]
EMBLEMA XXII.
Musicam Diis curae esse.
The gods care for music
Locrensis posuit, tibi Delphice Phoebe cicadam
Eunomus hanc, palmae signa decora suae.
Certabat plectro Sparthyn commissus in hostem,
Et percussa sonum pollice fila dabant.
Trita fides rauco coepit cum stridere bombo,
Legitimum Harmonias & vitiare Melos
Tum citharae argutans suavis sese intulit ales
Quae fractam impleret voce cicada fidem
Quaeque allecta, soni ad legem descendit ab altis
Saltibus, ut nobis garrula ferret opem:
Link to an image of this page [D5r f16r]Ergò tuae ut firmus stet honos, ô sancte, Cicadae,
Pro Cithara hic fidicen aeneus ipsa sedet.[1]
Phoebus, god of Delphi, Locrian Eunomus set up this cicada in your honour, an appropriate symbol of his victory. He was competing in the lyre contest against his rival Sparthys and the strings resounded as he plucked them with the plectrum. A worn string began to buzz with a hoarse rattle and spoil the true melody of the music. Then a sweet-voiced creature, a cicada, flew chirping onto the lyre to supply with its song the broken string. Recruited to follow the rules of musical sound, it flew down from the high glades to bring us aid with its chirping song. Accordingly, so that the honour due to your cicada, o holy god, may last undiminished, on top of the lyre she sits here herself, a minstrel in bronze.
Das XXII.
Die Musica gefellt Gott.
Eunomus von Locra hat dir
Phoebe von Delph zu einer zir
Dise Ehrin Cicad geweicht
Daß sie sey seines Sigs ein zeichn
Da er sich zu kempffen einließ
Mit der Harpffn wider sein verdrieß
Gegen seim widersacher gschwindt
Rürt die Seitn mit dem Finger lindt
Ohn als gferd im ein Seit absprang
Davon wurd ein unlieblich klang
Und die süß lieblich Melodey
Verendert sich in ein miß gschrey
Link to an image of this page [D5v f16v]
Allda ließ zur Harpffen sich nein
Cicad das schreyend Vögelein
Erstattet mit irem gschrey und gsang
Den abgesprungnen Seitenklang
Die hat gereitzt dMelodey süß
Das sie die hohn Berg und Wäld ließ
Und flog hernider zu uns dar
Das sie uns helff mit irem gschnar
Derhalben lieber Gott und HERR
Das deinr Cicad bleib ewig ehr
So thut sie hie als ein Spilmann
Auß Ertz gmacht auff der Harpffen stan.
1. This is a translation of Anthologia graeca 6.54. See Strabo, Geography 6.1.9 for the story of Eunomus and the statue he set up at his home town of Locri commemorating this incident in the song contest at the Pythian Games (celebrated near Delphi, in honour of Apollo, Artemis and their mother Leto); also Erasmus, Adagia 414, Acanthia Cicada.
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- insects: cicada (+ animals used symbolically) [25F711(CICADA)(+1):48(+6122)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- insects: cicada (+ audible means of communication of animal(s): roaring, crying, singing, barking, mewing, neighing, chirping, etc.) [25F711(CICADA)(+49)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- window [41A33] Search | Browse Iconclass
- table [41A711] Search | Browse Iconclass
- bench [41A723] Search | Browse Iconclass
- sculpture (+ relief ~ sculpture) [48C2(+321)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- lute, and special forms of lute, e.g.: theorbo [48C7323] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- 'Armonia' (Ripa) [22D110] Search | Browse Iconclass
- minerals and metals (with NAME) [25D13(BRONZE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- 'Musica', symbolic representations, allegories and emblems ~ music; 'Musica'(Ripa) [48C70] Search | Browse Iconclass
- inspiration of the musician [48C7210] Search | Browse Iconclass
- attributes of Apollo (with NAME) (+ variant) [92B38(LYRE)(+0)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (story of) Diana (Artemis) [92C3] 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(ARISTON OF RHEGIUM)3] 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(EUNOMUS OF LOCRIS)3] Search | Browse Iconclass
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