
In eos qui supra vires quicquam audent.
Those who venture on what is beyond their powers.
Emblema lviii.
Dum dormit, dulci recreat dum corpora somno
Sub picea, & clavam caeteráque arma tenet,
Alciden Pygmaea manus[1] prosternere letho
Posse putat, vires non bene docta suas.
Excitus ipse, velut pulices, sic proterit hostem,
Et saevi implicitum pelle leonis[2] agit.
While Alceus’ descendant was sleeping, while he was refreshing his body with gentle slumber, beneath a spruce tree, keeping hold of his club and other weapons, a band of pygmies thought they could lay him low in death, not really grasping the limit of their powers. But he, waking up, crushed the foe like fleas, and carried them off, wrapped up in the fierce lion’s skin.

Apologus hic in eos flectitur, qui licet tenuis for-
tunae sint, aut ingenio non perinde valeant, au-
dent tamen potentiores, vel etiam doctiores inces-
sere: quo ex conflictu nihil referunt praeter noxam
& dedecus. Meminit apologi Marcellinus lib. 22. u-
bi de Iuliano Imperatore à maledicis impetito: fru-
stra, inquit, virum circumlatrabant, immobilem oc-
cultis iniuriis, ut Pygmaei vel Thiodamas, agrestis
homo Lyndius cum Hercule. Historiam tamen ma-
lim peti à Philostrato in Imaginibus.

De ceux qui entre-
prennent par dessus leurs forces.
LEs Nains un jour voyans dormir Hercule à l’ombre
D’un grand Pin, contre luy s’approchent en grand nombre,
Pensans le despescher, & soudain mettre à mort
Sans resistance aucune: & ce pendant qu’il dort
La massue en ses bras il tenoit & ses armes.
Mais ils estoient pour luy par trop foibles gendarmes:
Car esveillé qu’il fut, les tue comme poux,
Et de son fier Lyon dans la peau les mit tous.
CEste invention fabuleuse icy est dicte
contre ceux lesquels quoy qu’ils soient
petis compagnons, & au demeurant n’ayent
grand’ cervelle, osent bien assaillir les plus-
forts, ou les plus-doctes: duquel conflit tou-
tesfois ils ne rapportent autre chose sinon
dommage & deshonneur. Marcellin en son
livre 22. fait mention de cest apologue, là ou
il parle de Julian l’Empereur assailly par les
mesdisans: En vain, dit il, aboyoient-ils par
secrettes calomnies cest homme constant &
immobile: comme les Pygmees, ou Thioda-
mas, Lyndien[3], homme des champs contre Her-
cules. J’aymeroie toutefois mieux reprendre
ceste histoire des tableaux de Philostrate.
Related Emblems
Iconclass Keywords
Relating to the image:
- adult man (+ seven persons) [31D14(+77)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm held downwards (+ holding something) [31A2515(+933)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm raised upward (+ holding something) [31A2511(+933)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm stretched forward (+ holding something) [31A2512(+933)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- attributes of Hercules (with NAME) [94L8(CLUB)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- attributes of Hercules (with NAME) [94L8(LION'S SKIN)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- barefoot [41D2339] Search | Browse Iconclass
- beard [31A534] Search | Browse Iconclass
- beasts of prey, predatory animals: lion (+ skin, fleece, hide, fur, leather) [25F23(LION)(+351)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- boulder, stone [25H1124] Search | Browse Iconclass
- clouds [26A] Search | Browse Iconclass
- dress, gown (+ men's clothes) [41D211(+81)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- dwarf-tribes, pygmies [32B37] Search | Browse Iconclass
- hacking and thrusting weapons: sword [45C13(SWORD)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Hercules falls asleep after having slain Antaeus, and is attacked by a swarm of pygmies (Philostratus, Imagines II 22) [94L4124] Search | Browse Iconclass
- low hill country [25H114] Search | Browse Iconclass
- lying on one side, with uplifted upper part of the body and leaning on the arm (+ sitting) [31A2364(+53)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- man (showing himself) undressed, quasi-nude [41D91] Search | Browse Iconclass
- protective weapons: shield [45C19(SHIELD)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- pygmies, midgets [31A4221] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rocks [25H112] Search | Browse Iconclass
- sitting on an elevation [31A2352] Search | Browse Iconclass
- sleeping on the ground - BB - out of doors [31BB13] Search | Browse Iconclass
- weapons for striking a blow: club [45C12(CLUB)] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- Audacity, Temerity; 'Audacia' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [54A82(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- flight, running away; pursuing [33B9] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Fortune and Misfortune [54F] Search | Browse Iconclass
- insects (with NAME) [25F711(FLEA)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Restriction, Limitation (+ emblematical representation of concept) [51EE11(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees (with NAME) [25G3(PINE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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