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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [n5r p201]

Hedera.

Ivy

XXXVIII.

Haudquaquam arescens hederae est arbuscula, Cisso[1]
Quae puero Bacchum dona dedisse ferunt:
Errabunda, procax, auratis fulva corymbis,
Exterius viridis, caetera pallor habet.
Hinc aptis vates cingunt sua tempora sertis:[2]
Pallescunt studiis, laus diuturna viret.

There is a bushy plant which never withers, the ivy which Bacchus, they say, gave as a gift to the boy Cissos. It goes where it will, uncontrollable; tawny where the golden berry-clusters hang; green on the outside but pale everywhere else. Poets use it to wreathe their brows with garlands that fit them well - poets are pale with study, but their praise remains green for ever.

Notes:

1.  Κισσός is the Greek word for ‘ivy’. For the story of Cissos, beloved of Bacchus, and his transformation into the ivy, see Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 12.188ff.

2.  vates cingunt sua tempora, ‘Poets use it to wreathe their brows’. See Pliny, Natural History, 16.62.147: poets use the species with yellow berries for garlands.

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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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