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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [C2r p35]

Prudentes.

The Wise.

EMBLEMA XVIII.

The two-headed image of Janus in the sky above a town and countryside
[Click on image to enlarge]

Iane bifrons, qui iam transacta futuraque calles,
Quique retro sannas, sicut & antè, vides:[1]
Tot te cur oculis, tot fingunt vultibus? an quòd
Circumspectum 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?

Notes:

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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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [b3r p21]

In Victoriam dolo partam.

On victory won by guile.

IX.

Virtue sitting crying on the tomb marked D M AIACIS
[Click on image to enlarge]

Aiacis tumulum lacrymis ego perluo virtus,
Heu misera albentes dilacerata comas.
Scilicet hoc restabat adhuc, ut iudice Graeco[1]
Vincerer, & causa stet potiore dolus.[2]

I, Virtue, bedew with tears the tomb of Ajax, tearing, alas, in my grief my whitening hairs. This was all it needed - that I should be worsted with a Greek as judge, and that guile should appear to have the better cause.

COMMENTARIA.

Virtus ipsa eiulans, Aiacis deflet sepulchrum.
(quod est prope Sigaeum promontorium
Troiae, Plinius lib. 5. cap. 30.) obid nimirum, quòd
illa dolo suppressa & victa fuerit, quodque
Graeci contra eam iniquè iudicaverint. Hoc
ideo quia cùm Aiax fortissimus heros, inter-
fecti Achillis arma peteret (quae meritò sibi
ob strenua sua facta virtutesque eximias, de
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [b3v p22] quibus apud Homerum, cessissent). Ulysses
fraude & calliditate sua tantum effecit, ut
Graeci Iudices, spreto Aiace, sibi arma illa ad-
iudicaverint, quod adeò molestè tulit Aiax
ut ad insaniam pervenerit, ac tandem ob iram
& verecundiam semetipsum necaverit, per-
pulchrè Ovidius lib. 13. Metamorphoseon. Sic doli causa
potior fuit quàm ipsius virtutis: quod qui-
dem & hodie haud rarum est, virtutique flendi
ansa datur frequentissima.

Notes:

1.  The Greek assembly awarded the arms of the dead Achilles to the cunning and eloquent Ulysses, not the brave and straight-forward Ajax. For Ajax’ subsequent suicide, [A56a038].

2.  See Anthologia graeca 7.145.

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