Link to an image of this page [B1v f9v]Scyphus Nestoris.
Nestor’s cup
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.
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’.
Related Emblems
Show related emblemsHint: You can set whether related emblems are displayed by default on the preferences page
Iconclass Keywords
Relating to the image:
- minerals and metals: gold [25D13(GOLD)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- minerals and metals: silver [25D13(SILVER)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- other birds: dove (+ ornamental variants of animals) [25F39(DOVE)(+15)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- cup [41C321] Search | Browse Iconclass
- other ornament derived from animal forms [48A9845] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- stars and constellations [24D1] Search | Browse Iconclass
- stars and constellations (with NAME) [24D1(GREAT BEAR)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- stars and constellations (with NAME) [24D1(LITTLE BEAR)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- firmament, sky [24F] Search | Browse Iconclass
- old man [31D16] Search | Browse Iconclass
- war [45A1] Search | Browse Iconclass
- the poet and his muse [48C9101] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Wisdom; 'Sapienza', 'Sapienza humana', 'Sapienza vera' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [52A51(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Experience, Mastery; 'Esperienza' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [54A31(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Strength, Power; 'Fortezza', 'Fortezza d'Animo e di corpo', 'Fortezza del corpo congiunta con la generositą dell'animo', 'Fortezza & valore del corpo congiunto con la prudenza & virtł del animo', 'Forza' (Ripa) [54A7] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Pleiades (Vergiliae), daughters of Atlas [9.20E+03] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Nestor [95A(NESTOR)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (story of) Homer representations to which the NAME of a person from classical history may be attached [98B(HOMER)3] Search | Browse Iconclass
Hint: You can turn translations and name underlining on or off using the preferences page.
