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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [E3r p69]

Dolus in suos.

Treachery against one’s own kind.

EMBLEMA L.

Several birds diving into a net held by men behind a tree
[Click on image to enlarge]

Altilis allectator anas, & caerula pennis,
Assueta ad dominos ire redire suos,
Congeneres cernens volitare per aëra turmas,
Garrit, in illarum se recipitque gregem,
Praetensa incautas donec sub retia ducat:
Obstrepitant captae, conscia at ipsa silet.
Perfida cognato se sanguine polluit ales,
Officiosa aliis, exitiosa suis.[1]

The well-fed decoy duck with its green-blue wings is trained to go out and return to its masters. When it sees squadrons of its relations flying through the air, it quacks and joins itself to the flock, until it can draw them, off their guard, into the outspread nets. When caught they raise a protesting clamour, but she, knowing what she has done, keeps silence. The treacherous bird defiles itself with related blood, servile to others, deadly to its own kind.

Notes:

1.  Cf. Aesop, Fables, 282, where the decoy birds are pigeons.

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [k3r p149]

Remedia in arduo, mala in
prono esse.

Remedies are hard, damage is easy

XCII.

Three old women with staffs following after a winged figure with bird claws for feet
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Aetheriis postquàm deiecit sedibus Aten
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [k3v p150]Iuppiter,[1] heu vexat quàm mala noxa viros.
Evolat haec pedibus celer & pernicibus alis,
Intactumque nihil casibus esse sinit.
Ergo Litae proles Iovis hanc comitantur euntem,[2]
Saturae [=Sarturae] quicquid fecerit illa mali.
Sed quia segnipedes strabae[3], lassaeque senecta,
Nil nisi p̣st longo tempore restituunt.

Once Jupiter had cast Ate down from the heavenly abode, what an evil bane thereafter assailed poor man! Ate flies out fleet of foot with fast-beating wing and leaves nothing untouched by mishap. So Jove’s daughters, the Litae, accompany her as she goes, to mend whatever ill she has brought about. But they are slow-footed, poor of sight and weary with age, and so they restore nothing until later, after long passage of time.

COMMENTARIA.

Ate, Dea fingitur noxae, inimicitiarum, o-
mnisque destuctionis pernix ac volucris, quae
postquam de Coelo eiecta fuit, protinus in
terris hominum mentes seducere variisque ma
lis implicare coepit, pergitque celerrimo vola-
tu, loca omnia foedans atque perturbans.
Huic autem opponuntur eamque comitantur
Litae Iovis filiae, praecatrices & reconciliatri-
ces amicitiarum dissutarum. Eae quod Ate in-
ter mortales turbat conantur reficere, sed
quoniam strabis oculis, claudis pedibus, &
ob senectam lassae defatigataeque lentè admo-
dum incedunt, vix Aten illam velocem asse-
qui possunt: idcirco nihil confestim, sed tardè
denique restaurant. ut ingeniosè commenta-
tus est Homerus Iliades 9. Significans offensas
quidem veloces esse, reconciliationes veṛ
tardissimas.

Notes:

1.  ‘Jupiter had cast Ate down’. See Homer, Iliad 19. 125ff.

2.  ‘the Litae accompany her’. See Homer, Iliad 9.502ff. Ate means ‘Mischief’, Litae, ‘Prayers’. Ate was cast out of Olympus to bring harm to mankind, a personification of humans being led astray. The Litae were a personification of prayers offered in repentance.

3.  Textual variant: luscae.

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  • Slow Motion (+ emblematical representation of concept) [51MM1(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
  • Viciousness, Naughtiness (+ emblematical representation of concept) [57AA6(+4):54D4(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
  • Revenge, Requital, Retaliation; 'Vendetta' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [57AA741(+4):54DD4(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
  • Jupiter seizes Ate by her hair and hurls her down from Olympus, possibly because of the delayed birth of Hercules (+ variant) [92B143(+0)] Search | Browse Iconclass

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