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Populus alba.
The white poplar
EMBLEMA CCXII.
Herculeos crines bicolor quòd Populus ornet,[1]
Temporis alternat noxque diesque vices.[2]
The two-coloured poplar wreathes the locks of Hercules - and so its dark and light show time’s alternating changes.
1. The white poplar was dedicated to Hercules. According to Pausanias, Periegesis, 5.14.2, Hercules introduced it to Greece. According to another story, Hercules on his way back from the Underworld garlanded his head with stems from a white poplar growing beside the Acheron, a memorial of the nymph Leuke (White) carried off by Pluto.
2. noxque diesque, ‘its dark and light’ (lit. night and day), a reference to the dark green surface and white underside of the white poplar leaf. According to Pliny, Natural History, 16.36.87, the leaves of the white poplar turn over at the summer solstice. Hercules was equated with the sun: Macrobius, Saturnalia, 1.20.6 and 10.
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View emblem in Mason Tung: Variorum Edition of Alciato. (PDF)
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Relating to the image:
- beard [31A534] Search | Browse Iconclass
- day and night [23R] Search | Browse Iconclass
- head (human) [31A221] Search | Browse Iconclass
- medals and other marks of military honour [45B433] Search | Browse Iconclass
- sun represented as face, wheel, etc. [24A6] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees (with NAME) (+ plants used symbolically) [25G3(WHITE-POPLAR)(+1)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- waning moon, i.e. facing this way ( [24B3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- wreath, garland ~ festive activities «« KEY (12) TO 43A festivities [43A(+12)] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- 'Giorno naturale', 'Carro del giorno naturale' (Ripa) [23R10] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (story of) Hercules (Heracles) [94L] Search | Browse Iconclass
- colours, pigments, and paints (with NAME) [22C4(BROWN)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- colours, pigments, and paints (with NAME) [22C4(WHITE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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