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EMBLEMA CXXXI.

Inanis impetus.

Antagonism that achieves nothing

Lunarum [=Lunarem] noctu (ut speculum)[1] canis inspicit orbem:
Seque videns, alium credit inesse canem,[2]
Et latrat: sed frustra agitur vox irrita ventis,
Et peragit cursus surda Diana suos.[3]

A dog at night is looking into the moon’s disk as into a mirror and seeing himself, thinks there is another dog there; and he barks - but the sound is carried away, ineffectual, on the winds. Diana, unhearing, pursues her course.

Das CXXXI.

Vergebne mühe.

Als den Mon sach der Hund zu nacht
Und sich drinn als im Spiegel gdacht
Er es wer eins anderß Hunds Bild
Sprang ubersich und stalt sich wild
Aber sein bellen gieng in lufft
War vergebens und gar ein dufft
Der Mon dannoch sein lauff verricht
Last in bellen als ghör ers nicht.

Notes:

1.  For the theory of the moon’s disk as a mirror reflecting things on earth, see Plutarch, De facie in orbe lunae, Moralia, 920ff.

2.  Variant reading: altum credit inesse canem, ‘thinks there is a dog up there’.

3.  Diana is of course goddess of the moon.


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    Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [F3r p85]

    Pax.

    Peace

    Turrigeris humeris, dentis quoque barrus eburni,
    Qui superare ferox Martia bella solet,
    Supposuit nunc colla iugo, stimulisque subactus,
    Caesareos currus ad pia templa vehit.
    Vel fera cognoscit concordes undique gentes,
    Proiectisque armis munia pacis obit.[1]

    The elephant, with its tower-bearing shoulders and ivory tusk, a beast accustomed to dominate the conflicts of Mars with savage ravings, has now submitted its neck to the yoke: subdued by goads, it draws Caesar’s chariot to the holy temples. Even the beast recognises nations reconciled on every side, and rejecting the weapons of war, it performs the duties of peace.

    Notes:

    1.  This is translated from Anthologia graeca 9.285, which refers to an occasion under the Emperor Tiberius when the statue of the Deified Augustus was for the first time borne in procession in a chariot drawn by elephants.


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