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Iusta ultio.

Just revenge

Emblema clxxii.

A raven on the branch of a tree holding a scorpion in its beak.
[Click on image to enlarge]

Raptabat volucres captum pede corvus in auras
Scorpion, audaci praemia parta gulae.
Ast ille infuso sensim per membra veneno,
aptorem in Stygias compulit ultor aquas.
O risu res digna! aliis qui fata parabat,
Ipse perit, propriis succubuítque dolis.[1]

A raven was carrying off into the flying winds a scorpion gripped in its talons, a prize won for its audacious gullet. But the scorpion, injecting its poison drop by drop through the raven’s limbs, despatched the predator to the waters of the Styx and so took its revenge. - What a laughable thing! The one who was preparing death for others himself perishes and has succumbed to his own wiles.

SImile apud Aesopum de corvo cibum quaeritáte,
convertitur in id quod vulgò dici solet, captores
capi, raptores etiam à raptoribus abripi & illaquea-
ri: ut cùm à veneficis falsarii, calumniatores, & id
genus alii tolluntur de medio, vel etiam latrones
à praedonibus spoliantur.

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [Y8v f236v]

Vengeance à bon droit pratiquee.

LE corbeau ravisseur avoit prins pour sa proye
Un petit Scorpion: mais en n’y pensant point,
Il sent son ennemy qui l’attaque & le point.
Emprisonné qu’il est, si bien & beau essaye
L’oultrager dans le corps qu’il le rend roide mort.[2]
Cela n’est il pas bien digne de mocquerie?
“Celuy qui estoit plein de fraude & tromperie,
“Luy mesme s’est donné la cause de sa mort.

LE semblable est dans les fables d’Esope,
du corbeau cherchant sa pasture, ce que
se rapporte au dire commun, Les preneurs sont
prins: & les ravisseurs sont aussi arrestez aux
laqs d’aussi fins qu’eux: comme quand des
faulsaires sont happez & despechez par des
empoisonneurs, calomniateurs, & autres sem-
blables manieres de gens: ou quand les bri-
gans sont desvalisez par les volleurs.

Notes:

1.  This is a fairly free translation of Anthologia graeca 9.339. See Erasmus, Adagia 58, Cornix scorpium, where the Greek epigram is again translated.

2.  Corrected from the Errata

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EMBLEMA CXXIX.

Iusta vindicta.

Just recompense

Cyclops being stabbed in the eye
[Click on image to enlarge]

Dum residet Cyclops sinuosi in faucibus antri,
Haec secum teneras concinit inter oves,
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [N1v f84v]Pascite vos herbas: sociis ego pascar Achivis,
Postremumque Utin viscera nostra ferent.
Audiit haec Itacus, Cyclopaque lumine cassum
Reddidit: En poenas ut suus author habet[1]?[2]

Sitting in the mouth of his arching cave, the Cyclops sang thus to himself amidst his gentle sheep: Do you feed on grass; I shall feed on the Greek companions, and last of all my belly shall get No-man. The man from Ithaca heard this and made the Cyclops eyeless. See how the one who plotted misfortune collects it himself!

Das CXXIX.

Gerechte Rach.

Als Cyclops der ungheuwr volland
Auff grossen Felsen ans Meers rand
Saß und hütet seiner Schaf da
Und ward frölich, fang und sprach ja
Ir liebe Schaf weidt euch hie wol
Auf grüner Auw ich fressen sol
Auß Griechen Land die gfangne Mann
Zu letzt muß Utis auch daran
Bald solchs Ulysses der theuwer Held
Erhört dem Risn ein Fallen stelt
Sein eintzig Aug er im außstach
Ist das nit ein verdiente rach?

Notes:

1.  A proverbial sentiment: cf. Erasmus, Adagia 3091, Di tibi dent tuam mentem.

2.  For the story of Ulysses (the man from Ithaca) in the Cyclops’ cave and his escape by blinding the Cyclops, see Homer, Odyssey 9.177 ff. Ulysses had told the Cyclops his name was No-man. (Utis l. 4).

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