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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [I1r f52r]

EMBLEMA LXXVIII.

Mulieris famam non formam vulgatam
esse oportere.

A woman’s reputation, not her beauty, should be known to the world.

DIALOGISMUS.

A Dialogue.

Alma Venus quaenam haec facies, quid denotat illa
Testudo, molli quam pede Diva premis?
Me sic effinxit Phidias,[1] sexumque referri
Foemineum, nostra iussit ab effigie
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [I1v f52v]Quodque manere domi, & tacitas decet esse puellas
Supposuit pedibus talia signa meis.

Kindly Venus, what form is this, what does that tortoise mean, on which, o goddess, your soft feet rest? Phidias fashioned me like this. He intended the female sex to be represented by this image of me. Girls should stay at home and keep silence, and so he put such symbols under my feet.

Das LXXVIII.

Es sol einer [=eines] Weibs Zucht und Tugent be-
kannter seyn, dann ir schöne und gestalt,
In frag und antwort.

Liebe Venus was wil die gstalt
Und was bedeut der Schneck so gmalt
Den du hast under deim Fuß zart
Und trittest in zu boden hart?
Also hat mich Phidias gbild
Das ich wer und geb ein fürbild
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [I2r f53r]Dem Weiblichen Geschlecht und Art
Das sie von mir nemen zur fahrt
Ein lehr das sie in irem Hauß
Stets blieben und nit reihten auß
Darzu verschwiegen seyn und still
Der Schneck under mein Füssen wil.

Notes:

1.  Phidias’ statue of Aphrodite with one foot on a tortoise, set up at Elis, is mentioned by Pausanias, Periegesis 6.25.1. The tortoise is a symbol of ideal female domesticity, as it keeps silent and never leaves its house see Plutarch Coniugalia praecepta 32 (Mor. 142).


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