Link to an image of this page [m8v p192]
Prudentes.
The Wise.
VIII.
Iane bifrons, qui transacta futuraque calles,
Quique retro sannas sicut & antè vides,
[1]
Tot te cur oculis, tot fingunt vultibus? an quòd
Circunspectum hominem forma fuisse docet?
Two-headed Janus, you know about what has already happened and what is yet to come, you see the jeering faces behind just as you see them in front. Why do they represent you with so many eyes, why with so many faces? Is it because this form tells us that you were a man of circumspection?
1. quique retro sannas, sicut et ante, vides, ‘you see the jeering faces behind just as you see them in front’, a line based on Persius, Satirae, 1.58-62.
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- Prudence, 'Prudentia'; 'Prudenza' (Ripa) ~ one of the Four Cardinal Virtues [11M41] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Precaution (+ emblematical representation of concept) [52A24(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Janus' head, two-faced head [96A128(JANUS' HEAD)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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Senex puellam amans.
An old man in love with a girl
Dum Sophocles, quamvis affecta aetate, puellam
À questu Archippen ad sua vota trahit,
Allicit & pretio, tulit aegre insana iuventu [=iuventus]
:
Ob zelum, & tali carmine utrunque notat.
Noctua ut in tumulis, super utque cadavera bubo,
Talis apud Sophoclem nostra puella sedet.[1]
When Sophocles, in spite of his advanced years, induced the courtesan [Aganippe] to fulfil his desires, winning her over by the reward he offered, Archippus [her lover, the comic poet] was filled with indignation. Mad with jealousy, he lampooned both of them with this verse: As a night owl perches on a tomb, as an eagle owl on corpses, so my girl sits with Sophocles.
1. A story taken from Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, 13.592b. Sophocles is the great tragic poet, of whom several such tales were told. He made Aganippe the beneficiary under his will. But Alciato (and so his translators) confuse Aganippe (the courtesan) with Archippus (the comic poet).
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- owls [25F34] Search | Browse Iconclass
- the corpse [3.10E+04] Search | Browse Iconclass
- façade (of house or building) [41A31] Search | Browse Iconclass
- grave, tomb [42E31] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arch, archivolt ~ architecture [48C162] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- young versus old age; young and old [31D5] Search | Browse Iconclass
- whore, prostitute [33C52] Search | Browse Iconclass
- married couple of unequal age (+ variant) [42D311(+0)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- money [46B31] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (personifications and symbolic representations of) Love; 'Amore (secondo Seneca)' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [56F2(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Jealousy; 'Gelosia', 'Rammarico del ben'altrui' (Ripa) [57AA76] Search | Browse Iconclass
- male persons from classical history (with NAME) love-affairs of person from classical history [98B(SOPHOCLES)2] Search | Browse Iconclass
- female persons from classical history (with NAME) love-affairs of person from classical history [98C(ARCHIPPE)2] Search | Browse Iconclass
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