Link to an image of this page [C1v f17v]
Amuletum Veneris.
A charm against love
Inguina dente fero suffosum Cypris Adonim[1]
Lactucae foliis condidit exanimem.
Hinc genitali arvo tantum lactuca resistit,
Quantum eruca salax[2] vix stimulare potest.
The Cyprian goddess wrapped in lettuce leaves the lifeless Adonis, gored in the groin by the savage tusk. For this reason, lettuce deadens the procreative field even more than the aphrodisiac rocket can stimulate it.
1. For the story of Venus and Adonis and his fatal wounding by a wild boar, see Ovid, Metamorphoses, 10.529ff. and 705ff. Cyprus was one of the main centres of the worship of Venus, hence the name Cypris.
2. eruca salax, ‘the aphrodisiac rocket’. See Emblem 61 ([A46a061]), n.3. The effects of the plants rocket and lettuce are contrasted at Pliny, Natural History, 19.44.154.
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- amulet, talisman [13C31] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees (+ bare plant) [25G3(+351)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- plants and herbs: lettuce (+ plants used symbolically) [25G4(LETTUCE)(+1)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- low hill country [25H114] Search | Browse Iconclass
- farm or solitary house in landscape [25I3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- clouds [26A] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rural housing, e.g. country-house, villa, cottage [41A16] Search | Browse Iconclass
- attributes of Venus (with NAME) [92C48(LETTUCE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- witchcraft, sorcery [13B] Search | Browse Iconclass
- plants and herbs: lettuce (+ plants used symbolically) [25G4(ROCKET)(+1)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- male sexual organs [31A22361] Search | Browse Iconclass
- relations between the sexes [33C] Search | Browse Iconclass
- coitus, cohabiting, sexual intercourse [33C4] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Protection; 'Custodia', 'Difesa contra nimici, malefici & venefici', 'Difesa contra pericoli', 'Riparo da i tradimenti' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [54E42(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Venus mourning Adonis [92C49151] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (story of) Cupid, Amor (Eros) [92D1] Search | Browse Iconclass
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Link to an image of this page [C3v f19v]Abies.
The fir tree
Apta fretis abies in montibus editur altis:
Est & in adversis maxima commoditas.[1]
The fir tree that is fit to sail the sea grows high up on the hills. Even in hard circumstances, there is great advantage to be found.
1. This is because it grows strong by withstanding the gales and harsh weather. Contrast Anthologia Graeca, 9.30ff, 105, and the much-translated 376 for an opposing view of the fir tree: “how can the fir, storm-tossed while growing on land, resist the gales at sea?” 9.31 was translated by Alciato (Selecta epigrammata, p. 98).
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- water (one of the four elements) [21D] Search | Browse Iconclass
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