
PUDICITIA.
Chastity
Emblema. 47.
Porphyrio domini si incestent [=incestet]
in aedibus uxor,
Despondetque animum, praeque dolore perit.
Abdita in arcanis naturae est causa, sit index
Syncerae haec volucris certa pudicitiae.[1]
If the wife in its master’s house is unfaithful, the moorhen despairs and dies of grief. The reason lies hidden in the secrets of nature. This bird may serve as a sure sign of untarnished chastity.
1. For this information about the porphyrio (purple gallinule, a kind of moorhen) see Aelian, De Natura animalium, 3.42; Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, 9,388C: the purple gallinule ... when it is domesticated, ... keeps a sharp eye on married women and is so affected if the wife commits adultery, that it ends its life by strangling and so gives warning to its master.
Related Emblems

Hint: You can set whether related emblems are displayed by default on the preferences page
Iconclass Keywords
Relating to the image:
- shore-birds and wading-birds (with NAME) (+ animals used symbolically) [25F37(PURPLE COOT)(+1)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- groups of trees [25G11] Search | Browse Iconclass
- groups of plants (herbs) [25G13] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees (+ stem, trunk) [25G3(+21)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (high) hill [25H113] Search | Browse Iconclass
- prospect of city, town panorama, silhouette of city [25I12] Search | Browse Iconclass
- landscape with tower or castle [25I5] Search | Browse Iconclass
- clouds [26A] Search | Browse Iconclass
- border, ribbon, braid [41D2653] Search | Browse Iconclass
- ornament derived from animal forms [48A984] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- seeking death, suicide [31E238] Search | Browse Iconclass
- 'Castità', 'Pudicitia', 'Vergogna honesta' (Ripa) [33C8120] Search | Browse Iconclass
- adultery [42D39] Search | Browse Iconclass
Hint: You can turn translations and name underlining on or off using the preferences page.