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QUAE SUPRA NOS,
nihil ad nos.[1]
What lies above us is none of our business
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Caucasia aeternum pendens in rupe Promethêus[2]
Diripitur sacri praepetis ungue iecus
Et nollet fecisse hominem, figulosque perosus
Accensa [=Accensam]
rapto damnat ab igne facem.
Roduntur variis prudentum pectora curis,
Qui coeli affectant scire deûmque vices.
Suspended for ever from the Caucasian rock, Prometheus has his liver torn by the talons of the sacred bird. He could well wish he had not made man. Hating moulders of clay, he curses the torch lit from the stolen fire. - The hearts of the learned are gnawed by various cares, the learned who strive to know the vicissitudes of heaven and the gods.
1. See Erasmus, Adagia 569, Quae supra nos nihil ad nos.
2. The Titan Prometheus appears in myth as the champion of men against the ill-will of Zeus. According to one account, he moulded man out of clay (hence the reference to figuli, lit. ‘potters’, in l.3). Again, when Zeus withheld fire from mortals, Prometheus ascended to heaven and stole fire from the chariot of the sun for the benefit of men. As a perpetual punishment, Prometheus was put in chains and suspended from a rock in the Caucasus, where an eagle, the sacred bird of Zeus, in the day-time consumed his liver, which renewed itself every night. See Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.82ff; Hesiod, Theogony 561ff.
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Relating to the image:
- predatory birds: eagle (+ animal with prey) [25F33(EAGLE)(+452)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees (+ stem, trunk) [25G3(+21)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees (+ bare plant) [25G3(+351)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- heart [31A2221] Search | Browse Iconclass
- adult man (+ nude human being) [31D14(+89)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- the corpse [31E3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- animals eating and drinking [34(+945)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- animals threatening man [34F1] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (showing oneself) undressed, quasi-nude [41D9] Search | Browse Iconclass
- an eagle tears at Prometheus' liver [91E4611] Search | Browse Iconclass
- attributes of Jupiter: eagle [92B18(EAGLE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- (symbolic) representations ~ creation, cosmos, cosmogony, universe, and life (in the broadest sense) [10] Search | Browse Iconclass
- fire (one of the four elements) [21C] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Things Unknown, the Unknown (+ emblematical representation of concept) [51AA8(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Curiosity, Inquisitiveness, Desire of Knowledge; 'CuriositĂ ' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [52A12(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Punishment; 'Castigo', 'Pena', 'Punitione' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [57BB13(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- geographical names of countries, regions, mountains, rivers, etc. (names of cities and villages excepted) (with NAME) [61D(CAUCASUS)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Prometheus makes man out of clay, usually Minerva present [91E451] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Prometheus steals fire from the chariot of the sun [91E4521] Search | Browse Iconclass
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