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Amuletum Veneris.
A charm against love
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.
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 61 ([A46a061]), n.3. The effects of the plants rocket and lettuce are contrasted at Pliny, Natural History, 19.44.154.
Related Emblems
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Relating to the image:
- amulet, talisman [13C31] Search | Browse Iconclass
- attributes of Venus (with NAME) [92C48(LETTUCE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- clouds [26A] Search | Browse Iconclass
- farm or solitary house in landscape [25I3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- low hill country [25H114] Search | Browse Iconclass
- plants and herbs: lettuce (+ plants used symbolically) [25G4(LETTUCE)(+1)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rural housing, e.g. country-house, villa, cottage [41A16] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees (+ bare plant) [25G3(+351)] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- (story of) Cupid, Amor (Eros) [92D1] Search | Browse Iconclass
- coitus, cohabiting, sexual intercourse [33C4] Search | Browse Iconclass
- male sexual organs [31A22361] Search | Browse Iconclass
- plants and herbs: lettuce (+ plants used symbolically) [25G4(ROCKET)(+1)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Protection; 'Custodia', 'Difesa contra nimici, malefici & venefici', 'Difesa contra pericoli', 'Riparo da i tradimenti' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [54E42(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- relations between the sexes [33C] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Venus mourning Adonis [92C49151] Search | Browse Iconclass
- witchcraft, sorcery [13B] Search | Browse Iconclass
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