Section: ARBORES (Trees). View all emblems in this section.
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Populus alba.
The white poplar
Herculeos crines bicolor quòd populus ornet,[1]
Temporis alternat noxque, diesque vices.[2]
The two-coloured poplar wreathes the locks of Hercules - and so its dark and light show time’s alternating changes.
1. The white poplar was dedicated to Hercules. According to Pausanias, Periegesis, 5.14.2, Hercules introduced it to Greece. According to another story, Hercules on his way back from the Underworld garlanded his head with stems from a white poplar growing beside the Acheron, a memorial of the nymph Leuke (White) carried off by Pluto.
2. noxque diesque, ‘its dark and light’ (lit. night and day), a reference to the dark green surface and white underside of the white poplar leaf. According to Pliny, Natural History, 16.36.87, the leaves of the white poplar turn over at the summer solstice. Hercules was equated with the sun: Macrobius, Saturnalia, 1.20.6 and 10.
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- trees (with NAME) (+ plants used symbolically) [25G3(WHITE-POPLAR)(+1)] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- colours, pigments, and paints (with NAME) [22C4(BROWN)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- colours, pigments, and paints (with NAME) [22C4(WHITE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- day and night [23R] Search | Browse Iconclass
- 'Giorno naturale', 'Carro del giorno naturale' (Ripa) [23R10] Search | Browse Iconclass
- wreath, garland ~ festive activities [43A(+12)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (story of) Hercules (Heracles) [94L] Search | Browse Iconclass
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Amygdalus.
The almond
EMBLEMA CCIX.
Cur properans foliis praemittis Amygdale flores?
Odi pupillos praecocis ingenii.[1]
Almond tree, why are you in such a hurry to put out flowers before your leaves? I hate precocious pupils.
1. See Quintilian (Fabius Quintilianus), Institutio oratoria, 1.3.3: “the precocious type of intellect never easily comes to fruition”.
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- trees: almond-tree (+ plants used symbolically) [25G3(ALMOND-TREE)(+1)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (human) skull [31A211] Search | Browse Iconclass
- beard [31A534] Search | Browse Iconclass
- infant, baby ~ the ages of man [31D111] Search | Browse Iconclass
- adult man [31D14] Search | Browse Iconclass
- cushion [41A7221] Search | Browse Iconclass
- coat, cape [41D212] Search | Browse Iconclass
- clothing for the upper part of the body [41D223] Search | Browse Iconclass
- gear for legs and feet [41D233] Search | Browse Iconclass
- baby in swaddling clothes [42A252] Search | Browse Iconclass
- book [49M32] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- trees: almond-tree (+ flowers, blossom, blossoming) [25G3(ALMOND-TREE)(+32)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Precocity (+ emblematical representation of concept) [51F521(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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