Link to an image of this page [E1v p66]
Pudicitia.
Chastity
EMBLEMA XLVII.
Porphyrio, domini si incestet in aedibus uxor,
Despondetque animum, praeque dolore perit.
Abdita in arcanis naturae est caussa: sit index
Sincerae 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.
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- shore-birds and wading-birds (with NAME) (+ animals used symbolically) [25F37(PURPLE COOT)(+1)] 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 ruins [25I9] Search | Browse Iconclass
- border, ribbon, braid [41D2653] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- seeking death, suicide [31E238] Search | Browse Iconclass
- 'CastitĂ ', 'Pudicitia', 'Vergogna honesta' (Ripa) [33C8120] Search | Browse Iconclass
- adultery [42D39] Search | Browse Iconclass
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Link to an image of this page [G1r p97]
Remedia in arduo, mala in
prono esse.
Remedies are hard, damage is easy
Aetheriis postquam deiecit sedibus Aten
Iupiter,[1] heu vexat quàm mala noxa viros.
Evolat haec pedibus celer & pernicibus alis,
Intactumque nihil casibus esse sinit.
Ergo Litae proles Iovis hanc comitantur euntem,[2]
Sarcturae quicquid fecerit illa mali.
Sed quia segnipedes strabae[3] lassaeque senecta,
Nil nisi p̣st longo tempore restituunt.
Once Jupiter had cast Ate down from the heavenly abode, what an evil bane thereafter assailed poor man! Ate flies out fleet of foot with fast-beating wing and leaves nothing untouched by mishap. So Jove’s daughters, the Litae, accompany her as she goes, to mend whatever ill she has brought about. But they are slow-footed, poor of sight and weary with age, and so they restore nothing until later, after long passage of time.
1. ‘Jupiter had cast Ate down’. See Homer, Iliad 19. 125ff.
2. ‘the Litae accompany her’. See Homer, Iliad 9.502ff. Ate means ‘Mischief’, Litae, ‘Prayers’. Ate was cast out of Olympus to bring harm to mankind, a personification of humans being led astray. The Litae were a personification of prayers offered in repentance.
3. Textual variant: luscae.
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- harpy (fabulous bird); 'Arpie' (Ripa) [25FF3(HARPY)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- shrubs [25G31] Search | Browse Iconclass
- boulder, stone [25H1124] Search | Browse Iconclass
- gulf, bay [25H2323] Search | Browse Iconclass
- clouds [26A] Search | Browse Iconclass
- looking over the shoulder [31A247] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- monsters ~ birds - AA - female (+ legs, wings, etc.) [31AA453(+3)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- other lesser deities of Heaven ~ destiny, fate, adversity: Litae [92G7(LITAE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- Slow Motion (+ emblematical representation of concept) [51MM1(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Viciousness, Naughtiness (+ emblematical representation of concept) [57AA6(+4):54D4(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Revenge, Requital, Retaliation; 'Vendetta' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [57AA741(+4):54DD4(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Jupiter seizes Ate by her hair and hurls her down from Olympus, possibly because of the delayed birth of Hercules (+ variant) [92B143(+0)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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