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MULIERIS FAMAM NON
formam vulgatam esse
oportere.
A woman’s reputation, not her beauty, should be known to the world.
Alma Venus quae nam haec facies quid denotat illa,
Testudo molli quam pede diva premis?
Me sic effinxit phidias,[1] sexumque referri,
Foemineum nostra iussit ab effigie,
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.
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).
Related Emblems
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Relating to the image:
- sun represented as face, wheel, etc. [24A6] Search | Browse Iconclass
- birds [25F3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- other birds (with NAME) [25F39(DOVE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- tortoises, turtles (+ animals used symbolically) [25F44(+1)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees (+ stem, trunk) [25G3(+21)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm stretched forward (+ holding something) [31A2512(+933)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm held downwards [31A2515] Search | Browse Iconclass
- index finger forwards, pointing, indicating [31A25552] Search | Browse Iconclass
- one leg in front of the other - AA - female human figure (+ standing) [31AA2621(+51)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trampling, treading, stamping on someone or something - AA - female human figure [31AA2726] Search | Browse Iconclass
- adult woman [31D15] Search | Browse Iconclass
- adult woman (+ nude human being) [31D15(+89)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- housewife [42F10] Search | Browse Iconclass
- piece of sculpture, reproduction of a piece of sculpture [48C24] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (story of) Venus (Aphrodite) [92C4] Search | Browse Iconclass
- other specific aspects of Venus (with NAME) [92C473(DOMESTICA)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- attributes of Venus (with NAME) [92C48(DOVE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- attributes of Venus: turtle [92C48(TURTLE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- Beauty; 'Bellezza' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [51D4(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Taciturnity; 'Secretezza', 'Secretezza overo Taciturnità' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [52DD3(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Good Behaviour (+ emblematical representation of concept) [57A1(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Fame; 'Fama', 'Fama buona', 'Fama chiara' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [59B32(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- male persons from classical history (with NAME) non-aggressive activities of person from classical history [98B(PHIDIAS)5] Search | Browse Iconclass
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