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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [L8v f75v]

EMBLEMA CXV.

In victoriam dolo partam.

On victory won by guile.

Virtue sitting crying and tearing her hair on a tomb.
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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [M1r f76r]

Aiacis tumulum lachrymis ego perluo virtus,
Heu misera albentes dilacerata comas.
Scilicet hoc restabat adhuc, ut iudice Graeco[1]
Vincerer: & causa stet potiore dolus.[2]

I, Virtue, bedew with tears the tomb of Ajax, tearing, alas, in my grief my whitening hairs. This was all it needed - that I should be worsted with a Greek as judge, and that guile should appear to have the better cause.

Das CXV.

Von Sig durch betrug bekommen.

Ich die Tugend mit zehern naß
Wasch deß Helden Ajacis Graß,[3]
Allda er dann begraben ligt
Und rauff auß mein schönes Har dick
Dann das allein noch ubrig war
Das ich beym Griechischen Richter zwar
Das Recht gewesn, aber es gilt
Mehr dann das recht der betrug milt.

Notes:

1.  The Greek assembly awarded the arms of the dead Achilles to the cunning and eloquent Ulysses, not the brave and straight-forward Ajax. For Ajax’s subsequent suicide, see Emblem 66 [A67a066].

2.  See Anthologia graeca 7.145.

3.  While ‘Gras’ (Engl.: grass) is a possible reading, ‘Grab’ (Engl.: grave), although it disturbs the rhyme, is more likely: an interesting confusion between ‘b’ and the German ‘ß’.

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Section: PERFIDIA (Treachery). View all emblems in this section.

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [D6v p60]

In receptatores sicariorum.

Those who harbour cut-throats

Actaeon changing into a stag and being attacked by his hounds
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Latronum furumque manus tibi Scaeva[1] per urbem
It comes: & diris cincta cohors gladiis.
Atque ita te mentis generosum prodige censes,
Quòd tua complureis allicit olla malos.
En novus Actaeon, qui postquàm cornua sumpsit,
In praedam canibus se dedit ipse suis.[2]

An evil-minded band of ruffians and thieves accompanies you about the city, a gang of supporters armed with lethal swords. And so, you wastrel, you consider yourself a fine lordly fellow because your cooking pot draws in crowds of scoundrels. - Here’s a fresh Actaeon - he, after he grew his horns, became the prey of his own hunting dogs.

Notes:

1.  Scaeva, ‘evil-minded’. The capital letter suggests that the Latin word could be taken as a proper name in the vocative case, i.e addressing one Scaeva.

2.  For the story of Actaeon turned into a stag and killed by his own hounds, see Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.138ff. Similarly, the hangers-on will destroy the one who has fed them.

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