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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [n4r p199]

Amuletum Veneris.

A charm against love

XXX.

Inguina dente fero suffosum Cypris Adonim[1]
Lactucae foliis condidit exanimem.
Hinc genitali arvo tantum lactuca resistit,
Quantum eruca salax[2] vix stimulare potest.

The Cyprian goddess wrapped in lettuce leaves the lifeless Adonis, gored in the groin by the savage tusk. For this reason, lettuce deadens the procreative field even more than the aphrodisiac rocket can stimulate it.

Notes:

1.  For the story of Venus and Adonis and his fatal wounding by a wild boar, see Ovid, Metamorphoses, 10.529ff. and 705ff. Cyprus was one of the main centres of the worship of Venus, hence the name Cypris.

2.  eruca salax, ‘the aphrodisiac rocket’. See Emblem 261 ([A56a261]), n.3. The effects of the plants rocket and lettuce are contrasted at Pliny, Natural History, 19.44.154.

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    Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [O6v p220]

    Littera occîdit, spiritus vivificat.[1]

    The letter kills but the spirit gives life

    EMBLEMA CLXXXV.

    A dead dragon with a figure sowing its teeth in a ploughed field.
    [Click on image to enlarge]

    Vipereos Cadmus dentes ut credidit arvis,
    Sevit & Aonio semina dira solo:
    Terrigenûm clypeata cohors exorta virorum est,
    Hostili inter se qui cecidere manu.
    Evasere quibus monitu Tritonidos armis
    Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [O7r p221]Abiectis data pax, dextraque iuncta fuit.[2]
    Primus Agenorides[3] elementa, notasque magistris
    Tradidit, iis suavem iunxit & harmoniam.[4]
    Quorum discipulos contraria plurima vexant,
    Non nisi Palladia quae dirimuntur ope.

    When Cadmus entrusted the dragon’s teeth to the furrows and sowed the dread seed in Aonian [Theban] soil, there sprang up a shield-bearing band of earth-born men, who fell by fighting among themselves. Those escaped who at Tritonia’s [Athena’s] command threw down their arms, granted peace and joined right hands. Agenor’s son first gave to teachers letters and symbols and also put together for them sweet musical concord. Many adversities assail those who follow these disciplines, adversities which are resolved only by Pallas Athena’s aid.

    Notes:

    1.  II Corinthians 3:6.

    2.  For the story of Cadmus, founder of Thebes (in Aonia, or less correctly in the French, in Thessaly), and the dragon’s teeth, see Ovid, Metamorphoses, 3.99ff. Athena, goddess of wisdom - here called Tritonia, from the place of her birth in North Africa - brought the internecine struggle between the earth-born warriors to an end.

    3.  Agenorides, ‘Agenor’s son’, i.e. Cadmus, who supposedly introduced writing to Greece. The scattering of the dragon’s teeth was interpreted as the invention of the alphabet.

    4.  harmoniam, ‘musical concord’. Cadmus’ wife was called Harmonia.

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