
Contre ceux qui osent par dessus leurs forces.
XX.
Les Nains se vont un jour trouver,
Là où Hercule prenoit somme,[1]
Le cuidans de vie priver,
N’estimans, qu’il fust si fort homme:
Lors s’esveille, & voyant la somme
De telles gents, il s’en revanche,
Faisant d’eux comme d’une pomme:
Car il les mit tous en sa manche.
commentaires.
Hercules, ayant posé sa masse, & ses autres armes,
se mit à dormir sous un arbre. Les Pygmees, (peuple
des Indes, qui n’a qu’une coudee de haut, & qui fait
ordinairement la guerre aux grues) s’estans assemblés
en grand nombre, se mettent en devoir de le tuer,
Link to an image of this page [C1r p33]
ignorans de quelle force il estoit revestu. Hercules
s’estant reveillé, les traicta d’une sauvage façon. Il les
mit tous en sa peau de lion, & comme si ils eussent
esté des puces, il les escrasa
& deschira tous. Il en
prend ainsi souvent aux outrecuidés de nostre siecle,
lesquels, quoy qu’ils n’ayent ny force ny vertu, ne
laissent pas d’estre si mal advisés de s’attaquer à plus
grands qu’eux, & mesmes à personnes de marque,
donnans lieu au proverbe qui dit, Puis que tu es nain,
fay joug.
1. Hercules’ confrontation with the pygmies is described by Philostratus, Eikones 2.22.
Related Emblems
- [Alciato, Andrea, 1536: In eos qui supra vires quicquam audent. Contre ceulx qui osent pardessus leurs forces.]
- [Alciato, Andrea, 1549: Contre ceulx qui osent entreprendre oultre leur force.]
- [Alciato, Andrea, 1584: In eos qui supra vires quicquam audent. De ceux qui entre prennent par dessus leurs forces.]
Iconclass Keywords
Relating to the image:
- adult man more than eight persons [31D14(+79)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm held downwards (+ holding something) [31A2515(+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
- casting weapons (with NAME) [45C11(SPEAR)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- dress, gown (+ men's clothes) [41D211(+81)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- dwarf-tribes, pygmies [32B37] Search | Browse Iconclass
- farm or solitary house in landscape [25I3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- forest, wood [25H15] Search | Browse Iconclass
- groups of birds (+ flying animal(s)) [25F31(+5262)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- groups of trees [25G11] Search | Browse Iconclass
- head held in the hand(s), with elbows leaning on an elevation or on the knees (+ sitting) [31A25312(+53)] 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
- man (showing himself) undressed, quasi-nude [41D91] Search | Browse Iconclass
- pygmies, midgets [31A4221] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rural housing, e.g. country-house, villa, cottage [41A16] Search | Browse Iconclass
- sitting on an elevation [31A2352] Search | Browse Iconclass
- sitting or lying with one leg stretched forward and the other leg drawn up (+ sitting) [31A2626(+53)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- sleeping on the ground - BB - out of doors [31BB13] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees (+ stem, trunk) [25G3(+21)] 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
- Fortune and Misfortune [54F] Search | Browse Iconclass
- fruits (with NAME) [25G21(APPLE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Restriction, Limitation (+ emblematical representation of concept) [51EE11(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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