Section: PERFIDIA (Treachery). View all emblems in this section.
Link to an image of this page [D7v p62]
Ei qui semel sua prodegerit, aliena
credi non oportere.
Others’ property should not be entrusted to a person who has once squandered his own
Colchidos in gremio nidum quid congeris? eheu
Nescia cur pullos tam malè 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 [A50a078].
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- monument, statue [25I152] Search | Browse Iconclass
- landscape with tower or castle [25I5] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- chest, bust (+ nude human being) [31A222(+89)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm raised upward (+ holding something) [31A2511(+933)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm or hand held in front of the body (+ holding something) [31A2516(+933)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- child (+ nude human being) [31D112(+89)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- violent death by sword [31E234631] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- Misplaced Trust, False Confidence, 'Pax Falsa'; 'Speranza fallace' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [56D29(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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Section: PERFIDIA (Treachery). View all emblems in this section.
Link to an image of this page [D6r p59]
Maledicentia.
Evil speaking
Archilochi[1] tumulo insculptas de marmore vespas
Esse ferunt,[2] linguae certa sigilla malae.
They say that on the tomb of Archilochus wasps were carved in marble, sure figures of an evil tongue.
1. Archilochus was an eighth-century BC poet, author of much (now fragmentary) verse, including satire. This last was considered in antiquity to be excessively abusive and violent. See Horace, Ars Poetica, 79; also Erasmus, Adagia, 60 (Irritare crabrones).
2. ferunt, ‘they say’: words suggested by Anthologia Graeca, 7.71, an epigram concerning the tomb of Archilochus.
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