Link to an image of this page [E4r f36r]Avaritia.
Avarice
Heu miser in mediis sitiens stat Tantalus undis,
Et poma esuriens proxima habere nequit.
Nomine mutato de te id dicetur avare,
Qui, quasi non habeas, non frueris quod habes.[1]
Alas, poor Tantalus stands thirsting in the midst of waters, nor can he, for all his hunger, get the fruit close by. Miser, change the name and this will apply to you, since you get no more enjoyment out of what you have than if you didn’t have it.
1. quasi non habeas, non frueris quod habes: ‘you get no more enjoyment out of what you have than if you didn’t have it’. Cf. Tam deest avaro quod habet quam quod non habet, ‘the miser is deprived of what he has as much as what he has not’, a well-known proverb of Publilius Syrus, quoted e.g. in Quintilian, Institutio oratoria, 8.5.5. See Erasmus, Adagia, 1514 (Tantali poenae).
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Relating to the image:
- water (one of the four elements) [21D] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees: apple-tree (+ bearing fruit) [25G3(APPLE-TREE)(+34)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- river bank [25H217] Search | Browse Iconclass
- prospect of city, town panorama, silhouette of city [25I12] Search | Browse Iconclass
- landscape with bridge, viaduct or aqueduct [25I6] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm raised upward [31A2511] Search | Browse Iconclass
- floating (movement in water) (+ variant) [31A2774(+0)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- looking upwards [31B6211] Search | Browse Iconclass
- mouth wide open [31B6233] Search | Browse Iconclass
- adult man (+ nude human being) [31D14(+89)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- drowning, 'walking the plank' (violent death ~ water) - EE - death not certain; wounded person [31EE23111] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Tantalus, suffering eternal hunger and thirst [9.30E+82] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- Covetousness; 'Avaritia' (Ripa) ~ personification of one of the Seven Deadly Sins [11N34] Search | Browse Iconclass
- thirst [41C129] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Advantage [54F14] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Wealth, Opulence; 'Opulenza', 'Richezza' (Ripa) [55B1] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Greed, Covetousness, Cupidity; 'Cupidità § (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [55CC11(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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