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Reverentiam in matrimonio
requiri.
Respect is required in marriage
X.
Cùm furit in Venerem pelagi se in littore sistit
Vipera, & ab stomacho dira venena vomit:
Muraenamque ciens, ingentia sibila tollit,
Link to an image of this page [b4r p23]At subitò amplexus appetit illa viri.[1]
Maxima debetur thalamo reverentia, coniunx
Alternum debet coniugi & obsequium.
When the viper is sexually aroused, it stations itself on the seashore and ejects the dread poisons from its gut. To summon the moray eel, it raises a loud hissing, and suddenly she comes to the embrace of her mate. - Great reverence is owed to the marriage bed, and the partners owe each other mutual respect.
COMMENTARIA.
Vipera nequissimum genus serpentis & astu-
tissimum, libidine coëundi exaestuans, ad lit-
tus progreditur, ibique sibilando praesentiam
suam testatur, & sponsam suam Muraenam
allicit, ac omne venenum evomitione eiicit,
ut suavis sponsus suae sponsae videatur. Murae-
na verò protinus è Mari egreditur, atque am-
bo mutuam libidinem expleunt, mox haec ad
mare regreditur: illa verò resorpto iterum
veneno, ad latibulum suum etiam revertitur.
Autores sunt Aelianus lib. 12. cap. 5. & cap. 23.
Plinius lib. 9. cap. 23. & Caelius antiquarum lectio-
num lib. 16. cap. 13. Muraena piscis marinus
est, à nonnullis Lampetra putatur, sed falsò. de
qua Plinius loco citato. Sic etiam inter hu-
mana consortia, matrimonialis re-
verentia plurimum adverten
da & observanda erit, ut
vir uxorque sponte
alterna exer-
ceant obse
quia.
1. For the mating of the viper with the moray eel, see Pliny, Natural History 9.39.76; Aelian, De natura animalium 1.50; 9.66. The viper spits out the poison in order to be gentle and safe for the union.
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Link to an image of this page [B7r p29]
Non vulganda consilia.
Keep counsels secret
EMBLEMA XII.
Limine quod caeco, obscura & caligine monstrum,[1]
Gnosiacis clausit Daedalus in latebris,
Depictum Romana phalanx in proelia gestat,
Semiviroque nitent signa superba[2] bove:
Nosque monent, debere Ducum secreta[3] latêre
Consilia. auctori cognita techna nocet.
The monster that Daedalus imprisoned in its Cretan lair, with hidden entrance and obscuring darkness, the Roman phalanx carries painted into battle; the proud standards flash with the half-man bull. These remind us that the secret plans of leaders must stay hid. A ruse once known brings harm to its author.
1. ‘The monster that Daedalus imprisoned’, i.e. the Minotaur, the half-man, half-bull monster kept in the famous Labyrinth at Knossos, which Daedalus, the Athenian master-craftsman, constructed for King Minos.
2. According to Pliny, Natural History 10.5.16, before the second consulship of Marius (104 BC) Roman standards bore variously eagles, wolves, minotaurs, horses and boars. Marius made the eagle universal.
3. Cf. Festus, De verborum significatu (135 Lindsay): the Minotaur appears among the military standards, because the plans of leaders should be no less concealed than was the Minotaur’s lair, the Labyrinth.
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