Link to an image of this page [A8v]
OCNI EFFIGIES DE HIS QUI
meretricibus donant, qụd in bonos
usus verti debeat.[1]
A representation of Ocnus. On those who give to whores what should be turned to good
Link to an image of this page [B1r]
Impiger haud cessat funem contexere sparto,
Humidaque artifici iungere fila manu.
Sed quantum multis vix torquet strenuus horis,
Protinus ignavi ventris asella vorat.
Foemina iners animal, facili congesta marito,
Lucra rapit, mundum prodigit inque suum.
Ocnus never stops busily plaiting rope from broom, joining the damp fibres with skilful hand. But what he manages to spin with great effort in many hours the she-ass, a beast with greedy guts, continuously consumes. - Woman, an idle creature, grabs the accumulated savings from her complaisant husband and squanders it on her own adornment.
1. The painting by Polygnotus depicting this scene is described in Pausanias, Periegesis 29.2. See also Propertius, Elegies 4.3.21; Erasmus, Adagia 383, Contorquet piger funiculum. Ocnus, idleness personified, was a proverbial example of wasted effort.
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Relating to the image:
- animals eating and drinking [25F(+45)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm stretched sidewards (+ holding something) [31A2513(+933)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- one leg in front of the other, walking position (+ standing) [31A26211(+51)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- drawing, pulling something [31A2747] Search | Browse Iconclass
- beard [31A534] Search | Browse Iconclass
- adult man [31D14] Search | Browse Iconclass
- dress, gown (+ men's clothes) [41D211(+81)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- head-gear (+ men's clothes) [41D221(+81)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- clothing for the upper part of the body (+ men's clothes) [41D223(+81)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trousers, breeches (+ men's clothes) [41D231(+81)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- gear for legs and feet (+ men's clothes) [41D233(+81)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- ass, donkey (+ animals eating and drinking) [46C13142(+745)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- tools, aids, implements ~ crafts and industries: rope [47D8(ROPE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- spinning (manufacture of yarn) (+ men (labourers)) [47H31(+21)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (ball of) yarn (+ reeds, rushes ~ crafts, industries, agriculture) [47H352(+442)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rope-making [47H41] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Ocnus, usually twisting a cord which is eaten by an ass as soon as it is being made [9.30E+87] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- shrubs (with NAME) [25G31(BROOM)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- whore, prostitute [33C520] Search | Browse Iconclass
- marriage, married couple, 'matrimonium' [42D3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Industriousness, Assiduity; 'Assiduit৬ 'Industria', 'Zelo' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [54A11(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Sluggishness, Inertia; 'Dapocaggine', 'Pigritia' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [54AA11(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Squandering, Extravagance, Prodigality, Waste; 'Prodigalitৠ(Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [55C11(+4):42D36] Search | Browse Iconclass
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