Single Emblem View

« Previous EmblemNext Emblem »
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [M3v p182]

Ceux qui vivent en concorde ne peu-
vent estre surmontés.

XVIII.

Telle fut la concorde en trois freres germains,
Tel leur amour commun, telle leur charité,
Que jamais Prince aucun ne les a surmonté,
Quoy que les Geryons eussent ennemis maints.[1]

Commentaires.

Par la concorde les petits choses croissent &
s’aggrandissent, & par la discorde les grandes vien-
nent à s’escouler & perir entierement. Pline recite
qu’il y a certaines pierres en l’Isle Cycladique, lesquel-
les estans entieres, nagent & sont portees sur l’eau:
mais estans rompues & mises en pieces, elles vont au
fonds. Scilure le Scythe, estans pres de sa fin, persuada
à ses enfans de vivre en bonne amitié & concorde, par
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [M4r p183] l’exemple qu’il leur bailla d’un trousseau de dards,
lequel pas un deux ne peut rompre, ny faire ployer:
mesmes s’estans joincts ensemble, & employans tou-
tes leurs forces, n’en peurent venir à bout: mais le
trousseau estant deslié & desjoinct, le plus foible de
tous les rompoit facilement un à un. Geryon, comme
dit S. Hierosme, vient du mot gera, qui signifie adve-
naire. Il fut fils de Hiarbe Numidien. Plutarque, &
quelques autres, appliquent ainsi ceste fiction poëti-
que. Geryon fut un personnage de grand sens, de
grand courage, de grande entreprise. Il avoit avec
soy deux grands Capitaines, qui executoyent diligem-
ment & vaillamment tout ce qui leur estoit com-
mandé par Geyron: & pource qu’ils l’executoyent
avec tant de fidelité, qu’il sembloit que ce fust Ge-
ryon luy mesme, la posterité s’est imaginé, que Ge-
ryon avoit six bras & six jambes, avec lesquels luy
seul venoit à bout de tous ses desseings.

Notes:

1.  This is a rationalisation of Geryones, the unconquerable giant with three heads or three bodies, who dwelt on the island Erytheia of the mythic Hesperides, eventually vanquished and killed by Hercules during his abduction of Geryones’ famous cattle. See Emblem 25 ([FALe025]).

« Previous EmblemNext Emblem »

Related Emblems

Show related emblems Show related emblems

Hint: You can set whether related emblems are displayed by default on the preferences page

Iconclass Keywords

Relating to the image:

    Relating to the text:

    Hint: You can turn translations and name underlining on or off using the preferences page.

    Single Emblem View

    « Previous EmblemNext Emblem »
    Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [B1v f9v]

    Scyphus Nestoris.

    Nestor’s cup

    A large vessel with birds perched around it.
    [Click on image to enlarge]

    Nestoreum geminis cratera hunc accipe fundis, [1]
    Quod gravis argenti massa profudit opus.
    Claviculi ex auro: stant circum quattuor ansae:
    Unam quanque super fulva columba sedet.
    Solus eum potuit longaevus tollere Nestor.
    Maeonidae doceas quid sibi musa velit.
    Est coelum scyphus ipse. color argenteus illi est:
    Aurea sunt coeli sidera claviculi.
    Pleiadas esse putant, quas dixerit ille columbas.[2]
    Umblici [=Umbilici] gemini,[3] magna minorque fera est.[4]
    Haec Nestor longo sapiens intelligit usu.
    Bella gerunt fortes, callidus astra tenet.

    Receive this bowl of Nestor with its double support, a work which a heavy mass of silver shaped. Its studs are of gold. Four handles stand about it. Above each one sits a yellow dove. Only aged Nestor was able to lift it. Do tell us what Homer’s Muse intended. The cup itself is the heavens; its colour is silvery; the studs are the golden stars of heaven. They think that what he called doves are the Pleiades. The twin bosses are the great and lesser beast. The wise Nestor understood this by long experience: the strong wage war, the wise man grasps the stars.

    Notes:

    1.  Nestor’s bowl is described at Homer, Iliad, 11.632-7. Only Nestor, for all his great age could lift it when full. For the interpretation of Nestor’s cup (or mixing bowl) given here, see Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, 11.487 F ff.

    2.  The Greek word for ‘doves’ is πελειάδες.

    3.  ‘twin bosses’, i.e. possibly the protuberances inside the bowl where it was joined to the two supports.

    4.  ‘great and lesser beast’, i.e. the Great and Little Bear, a phrase based on Ovid, Tristia, 4.3.1: ‘magna minorque ferae’.

    « Previous EmblemNext Emblem »

    Related Emblems

    Show related emblems Show related emblems

    Hint: You can set whether related emblems are displayed by default on the preferences page

    Iconclass Keywords

    Relating to the image:

    Relating to the text:

    Hint: You can turn translations and name underlining on or off using the preferences page.

     

    Back to top