
REMEDIA IN ARDUO MALA
in prono esse.
Remedies are hard, damage is easy

Aetheriis postquam deiecit sedibus Aten,
Iupiter[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]
Sarcturae quicquid fecerit illa mali.
Sed quia segnipedes strabae[3] lassaeque senecta,
Nihil nisi post longo tempore restituunt.[4]
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.
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.
4. The woodcut is puzzling. Possibly the monster is supposed to represent Ate; in later editions she appears as a harpy-like figure. The Litae feature, in later editions, as old women. The old man presumably represents the suffering of mankind.
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- animals (+ wings of an animal) [25F(+342)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- dragon (large fabulous serpent, sometimes with wings and legs) [25FF422] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm stretched forward (+ holding something) [31A2512(+933)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- beard [31A534] Search | Browse Iconclass
- monsters ~ birds - AA - female (+ legs, wings, etc.) [31AA453(+3)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- old man [31D16] Search | Browse Iconclass
- dress, gown [41D211] Search | Browse Iconclass
- head-gear [41D221] Search | Browse Iconclass
- walking-stick, staff [41D263] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- walking - AA - female human figure [31AA2711] Search | Browse Iconclass
- 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
- other lesser deities of Heaven ~ destiny, fate, adversity: Litae [92G7(LITAE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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EMBLEMA CXCI [=190] .
Nihil reliqui.
Nothing left
Scilicet hoc deerat, post tot mala denique nostris
Locustae ut raperent, quicquid inesset agris.[1]
Vidimus innumeras Euro[2] duce tendere turmas:
Qualia non Atilae, castrave Xerxis erant.[3]
Hae foenum, milium, farra[4] omnia consumpserunt:
Spes & in angusto est, stant nisi vota super.
This was all it needed - that after so many misfortunes, finally locusts should seize whatever was in our fields. We have seen countless squadrons encamped, led by Eurus, hosts such as Attila and Xerxes never had. These creatures have eaten up all hay, millet and barley. There is little scope for hope unless our prayers prevail.

Das CXCI [=190] .
Alls verthon, nichts ubrigs.
Ich hör wol es hat an dem gfelt
Daß die Heuwschrecken unser Feld
Auffressen und blündertens Land
Nach soviel unglück das wir hand
Erlitten, wir haben gesehn
Das der Ostwind her hat thon wehn
Ein grössern hauffen den ghabt hat
Der Azel oder Xerxes drat
Die haben alles Heuw und dweid
Auffgefressen den Hirsch und das Gtreid
Die hoffnung wir jetzt haben klein
Nichts ubrigs dann das gbet allein.
1. Referring to a plague of locusts in North Italy in 1541/2 (as in the commentary).
2. Eurus was the wind from the East.
3. Attila the Hun and Xerxes, King of Persia, were leaders who invaded the Roman Empire and Greece with vast armies in mid fifth century AD and 480 BC respectively. Xerxes’ invasion and Attila’s first invasion both came from the east.
4. Variant reading: corda, ‘later crops’.
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- southeast wind, 'Eurus', 'Volturnus'; 'Euro' (Ripa) (one of eight directions) [26C124] Search | Browse Iconclass
- spoils of the hunt, game, venison [43C113] Search | Browse Iconclass
- land forces [45(+2)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- cereal, grain, corn (grass with grains, grown for food, e.g.: wheat, rice, rye, oats, maize, buckwheat, millet) [47I111] Search | Browse Iconclass
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