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Amuletum Veneris.

A charm against love

Emblema lxxvii.

Venus tending a man who has been gored by a wild pig. Cupid standing by.
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Inguina dente fero suffosum Cypris Adonin[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.

VEnus fingitur mortuí Adonidis genitalia lactu-
cis recondidisse, ut moneamur libidinem, tur-
pémque voluptatem ciborum moderatorum usu
sopiendam & repremindam esse. Nihil enim ae-
que conducit ad motus illicitos cohibendos, quam
victus ratio temperata. Eruca calefacit, Venerém-
que incitat: Lactuca verò contra, herba frigidae qua-
litatis.

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Contrepoison de Venus

IL advint qu’Adonis fut de la dent cruelle
Du sanglier furieux, navré mortellement,
Venus courant illec fit sepulture telle,
Ell’ mit ez genitaux laitues proprement.
De vray, la laitue est au fait d’amour contraire:
Et la Roquette chaude est propre à cest affaire.

ON feint que Venus ensevelit en des
laitues les parties genitales d’Adonis
mort, affin-que soyons advertis qu’il faut as-
sopir & reprimer la motion charnelle & vo-
lupté deshonneste par l’usage bien reglé des
viandes. Car il n’y a rien qui tant profite
pour appaiser ce furieux chatouillement, que
la raison du vivre temperé. La roquette es-
chauffe & provoque Venus: la laitue au con-
traire, d’autant qu’elle est de qualité froide.

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 72 ([FALc072]), n.3. The effects of the plants rocket and lettuce are contrasted at Pliny, Natural History, 19.44.154.

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