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In fraudulentos.

Deceivers

IX.

Parva lacerta, atris stellatus corpora guttis
Stellio,[1] qui latebras, & cava busta colit,
Invidiae parvique doli fert symbola pictus,
Heu nimium nuribus cognita zelotypis.
Nam turpi obtegitur faciem lentigine quisquis.
Sit quibus immersus Stellio, vina bibat.[2]
Hinc vindicta frequens decepta pellice vino.
Quam formae amisso flore relinquit amans.

The little lizard, called the ‘starred’ gecko from the dark star-shaped marks sprinkled all over its body, a creature that lurks in holes and hollow tombs, is pictured here and presents symbols of resentment and wicked deception, known only too well to jealous wives. For anyone who drinks wine in which a spotted gecko has been soaked comes out in ugly spots all over the face. This is often a way of taking revenge - the husband’s fancy woman is tricked with wine, and, when the flower of her beauty is gone, her lover abandons her.

Notes:

1.  stellio, ‘the ‘starred’ gecko’. See Ovid, Metamorphoses, 5.461 for the explanation of the name stellio.

2.  Nam turpi...vina bibat, ‘anyone who drinks wine...all over the face’. See Pliny, Natural History, 29.22.73.

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    QUID EXCESSI? QUID
    Admisi?

    Where have I transgressed? What have I committed?

    Emblema. 17.

    A man (Pythagoras) pointing at some cranes flying overhead
    [Click on image to enlarge]

    Italicae Samius sectae celeberrimus auctor[1]
    Ipse suum clausit carmine dogma brevi.
    Quò praetergressus? quid agis? quid omittis agendum?[2]
    Hanc rationem urgens reddere quenque sibi.
    Quod didicisse gruum volitantum ex agmine fertur,
    Arreptum gestant quae pedibus lapidem.[3]
    Ne cessent, neu transversas mala flamina raptent.
    Qua ratione hominum vita regenda fuit.

    The famous Samian founder of the Italian sect himself put his essential teaching into a short verse: Where have you overstepped the mark? What are you doing? What are you leaving undone that ought to be done? - urging each man to make this reckoning in his own mind. He is said to have learnt this from a skein of flying cranes, which seize a stone and carry it in their claws, to prevent themselves from making no headway, and to stop adverse gusts of wind carrying them off course. Man’s life was ever to be lived on this principle.

    Notes:

    1.  Italicae Samius sectae...autor, ‘Samian founder of the Italian sect’, i.e. Pythagoras. Born in Samos, he emigrated in 531 BC to Croton in South Italy, where he founded a religious/philosophical sect.

    2.  This is a version of the Greek text in the motto, which is recorded in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers, 8.20.

    3.  Cranes wisely carrying stones as ballast are likened to men of foresight in Suidas (i.e, the Suda), s.v. geranos. Other reasons were suggested by ancient writers for this habit.

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