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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [K2r p147]

In Occasionem.

Opportunity

EMBLEMA CXXI.

Διαλογιστικῶς.

In dialogue form.

A naked woman with winged feet standing on a wheel in the middle of the sea holding a knife in one hand and a scarf in the other.
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Lysippi[1] hoc opus est, Sicyon[2] cui patria tu quis?[3]
Cuncta domans capti temporis articulus.
Cur pinnis[4] stas? usque rotor. talaria plantis
Cur retines? passim me levis aura rapit.
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [K2v p148]In dextra est tenuis dic unde novacula? acutum
Omni acie hoc signum me magis esse docet.
Cur in fronte coma? occurrens ut prendar. At heus tu
Dic cur pars calva est posterior capitis?
Me semel alipedem si quis permittat abire,
Ne possim apprenso postmodō crine capi.
Tali opifex nos arte, tui caussa edidit, hospes:
Utque omnes moneam, pergula aperta tenet.

This image is the work of Lysippus, whose home was Sicyon. - Who are you? - I am the moment of seized opportunity that governs all. - Why do you stand on points? - I am always whirling about. - Why do you have winged sandals on your feet? - The fickle breeze bears me in all directions. - Tell us, what is the reason for the sharp razor in your right hand? - This sign indicates that I am keener than any cutting edge. - Why is there a lock of hair on your brow? - So that I may be seized as I run towards you. - But come, tell us now, why ever is the back of your head bald? - So that if any person once lets me depart on my winged feet, I may not thereafter be caught by having my hair seized. It was for your sake, stranger, that the craftsman produced me with such art, and, so that I should warn all, it is an open portico that holds me.

Notes:

1.  Greek sculptor, 4th century BC.

2.  A town west of Corinth.

3.  This is a translation of Anthologia graeca 16.275. See also Erasmus, Adagia 670, Nosce tempus, where Erasmus too gives a verse translation of the Greek epigram.

4.  ‘on points’. Alciato here agrees with Erasmus, who similarly translates the phrase ἐπ’ ἄκρα, ‘on tiptoe’, in the Greek original. Thomas More translates more obviously with summis digitis. See Selecta epigrammata (Cornarius, ed.) p. 372ff.

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [C1r p33]

In Amatores meretricum.

Those who give their affection to whores

Man dressed as goat fishing
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Villosae indutus piscator tegmina caprae,
Addidit ut capiti cornua bina suo,
Fallit amatorem stans summo in littore Sargum[1],
In laqueos simi quem gregis ardor agit.
Capra refert scortum, similis fit Sargus amanti,
Qui miser obscoeno captus amore perit.

When a fisherman has dressed himself in a shaggy she-goat skin and placed twin horns on his head, he stands at the edge of the beach, and tricks the passionate sargus, whom desire for the snub-nosed herd drives into the trap. - The she-goat represents the whore, the sargue is like the lover, who perishes, wretched fellow, in the toils of unwholesome love.

Notes:

1.  A sort of fish, possibly the sea-bream, believed to be unable to resist the smell of she-goats. See Aelian, De natura animalium 1.23.

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