Link to an image of this page [E7r]
IN VITAM HUMANAM.
On human life
Link to an image of this page [E7v]Plus solito humanae nunc defle incomoda vitae
Heraclite, scatet pluribus illa malis.
Tu rursus, si quando alias extolle cachinnum,
Democrite, illa magis ludicra facta fuit.
Interea haec cernens meditor, qua denique tecum.
Fine fleam, aut tecum quomodo splene iocer.[1]
Weep now, Heraclitus, even more than you did, for the ills of human life. It teems with far more woes. And you, Democritus, if ever you laughed before, raise your cackle now. Life has become more of a joke. Meanwhile, seeing all this, I consider just how far I can weep with you, how laugh bitterly with you.
1. This is a translation of Anthologia graeca 9.148. For Heraclitus, cf. [A50a016]. For the contrast between the despairing tears of Heraclitus (who withdrew from human society) and the sardonic laughter of Democritus when faced with the folly of men, see, among many sources, e.g. Juvenal, Satires 10, 28ff.
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- laughing [31B62321] Search | Browse Iconclass
- adult man [31D14] Search | Browse Iconclass
- young versus old age; young and old [31D5] Search | Browse Iconclass
- optimist and pessimist (human types) [32A30] Search | Browse Iconclass
- relations between individual persons [33] Search | Browse Iconclass
- bad companions [33A59] Search | Browse Iconclass
- communal rooms [41A22] Search | Browse Iconclass
- table [41A711] Search | Browse Iconclass
- bench [41A723] Search | Browse Iconclass
- unequal couple, ill-matched couple [42D31] Search | Browse Iconclass
- quill [49L511] Search | Browse Iconclass
- ink-well [49L62] Search | Browse Iconclass
- paper (material to write on) [49L641] Search | Browse Iconclass
- writing-table, writing-desk [49L66] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Mirth, Hilarity (+ emblematical representation of concept) [56B11(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Pain, Sorrow, Sadness; 'Dolore', 'Dolore di Zeusi' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [56BB1(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Democritus, while meditating amidst books and bones, receives his friend Hippocrates, sent by the inhabitants of Abdera, who were anxious about their philosopher's health [98B(DEMOCRITUS)51] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Heraclitus, the weeping philosopher, and Democritus, the laughing philosopher [98B(HERACLITUS)51] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- the life of man [11R] Search | Browse Iconclass
- the course of life symbolized [11R3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- weeping [31B6214] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Choice; 'Elettione' (Ripa) [53A11] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Vicissitudes of Life [54F122] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Joke; 'Giuoco (dall'antico)' (Ripa) [56B131] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Human Life; 'Vita humana', 'Vita inquieta', 'Vita e l'animo' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [58B21(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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