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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [B6r]

INVIOLABILES TELO Cupidinis.

Immune to Cupid’s dart

Bird flying over a rocky shore
[Click on image to enlarge]

Ne dirus te vincat amor, neu foemina mentem
Diripiat magicis artibus ulla tuam.
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [B6v]Bacchica avis praesto tibi motacilla paretur,
Quam quadriradiam circuli in orbe loces.
Ore crucem & cauda, & geminis ut complicet alis,[1]
Tale amuletum carminis omnis erit.
Dicitur hoc Veneris signo Pegasaeus Iason,
Phasiacis laedi non potuisse dolis.[2]

To prevent merciless love overcoming you, to prevent any woman plundering your mind with magic arts, provide yourself with a wagtail, bird of Bacchus. Place it spread four ways within the sphere of a circle, so that it forms the arms of a cross with its beak, tail and paired wings. Such a thing will be an amulet against all magic spells. Through this figure, the gift of Venus, it is said that Jason of Pagasae became immune to the wiles of Phasis.

Notes:

1.  These lines describe the rhombos, a device used in casting love-spells. The bird usually employed was a wryneck, associated with Bacchus, possibly because of its dappled markings. (Cf. the dappled fawns associated with the god.) The wagtail seems to have been confused with the wryneck in folk belief.

2.  Pagasa (or Pagasae) was the place in Thessaly where the ship Argo was built, in which the Argonauts, led by Jason, sailed to Colchis in the region round the river Phasis to fetch the Golden Fleece. In this and in other tasks imposed on them by the king of Phasis they were helped by the sorceress Medea, daughter of the king. Instructed by Venus, Jason used the rhombos to cause Medea to fall in love with him and so use her spells to help, not harm, him. See Pindar, Pythian Odes 4.216ff.

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [F2v p84]

Iusta vindicta.[1]

Just recompense

XXXVII.

Cyclops being stabbed in the eye
[Click on image to enlarge]

Dum residet Cyclops sinuosi in faucibus antri,
Haec secum teneras concinit inter oves:
Pascite vos herbas, sociis ego pascar Achivis,
Postremumque Utin viscera nostra ferent.
Audiit haec Ithacus, Cyclopaque lumine cassum
Reddidit, en poenas ut suus autor habet[2]. [3]

Sitting in the mouth of his arching cave, the Cyclops sang thus to himself amidst his gentle sheep: Do you feed on grass; I shall feed on the Greek companions, and last of all my belly shall get No-man. The man from Ithaca heard this and made the Cyclops eyeless. See how the one who plotted misfortune collects it himself!

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

Juste vengeance.

XXXVII.

Cyclops homme ayant ung seul oeil,
Chantoit en gardant ses moutons:
Moutons mangez blette, ou cerfueil,
Je mangeray des valetons.
Ulyxes qui oyt ces tons,
Luy creva l’oeil d’une grande perche:
Ainsi ce fier Roy des gloutons.
Le mal recoit, que a aultruy cherche.

Notes:

1.  Before the 1536 edition, Wechel editions used a different picture.

2.  A proverbial sentiment: cf. Erasmus, Adagia 3091, Di tibi dent tuam mentem.

3.  For the story of Ulysses (the man from Ithaca) in the Cyclops’ cave and his escape by blinding the Cyclops, see Homer, Odyssey 9.177 ff. Ulysses had told the Cyclops his name was No-man. (Utis l. 4).

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