
IMITATIO CAPTATRIX.
THE HUNTER IMITATES HIS PREY
Si quis foemineum tentat corrumpere sexum
Foemineos mores induat, ac habitus.
Se posita gravitate viri, multitia sumat.
Imberbisque velut foemina, comptus eat.
Chromate tum fucus faciemque, manusque coloret,
Pingat & adductam purpura rubra cutem.
Sic instructus, eam quam quaerit, vadat adortum
Verbaque det mistis blandula deliciis.
Oscula mox iungat, nudos post oscula tactus.
Caetera vis sine vi dissimulata dabit.
Iuppiter hac stuprum simulata Diana [=Dianae]
Calisto,
Claudius[1] uxori Caesaris, arte tulit.
If you're trying to corrupt the female sex, don feminine tricks and wiles. Shed your grave masculinity, and put on motley! Go beardless like a woman; colour your face and hands with paint; give even your second skin a healthy blush! Turned out like this, assault the one you seek and give her words admixed with sweetest compliments. Then unite in a kiss, and finally in naked clutches; the rest force, being masked, will bestow without force. Jupiter with this trick once made Callisto, the imitator of Diana, surrender to his lust; as Clodius did the wife of Caesar.
1. Read ‘Clodius’: the famous patrician politician and gang-leader Publius Clodius Pulcher, the enemy of both Cicero and Caesar, changed his name from Claudius to a more plebeian form in order to be elected Tribune of the People. The line refers to the famous scandal of the festival of the Bona Dea, after which Caesar famously divorced his young wife, Pompeia, with the immortal maxim that Caesar’s wife must be above even suspicion. (See Plutarch, Life of Caesar, 9.1 and following).
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Relating to the image:
- (lovers) embracing each other, 'symplegma' [33C233] Search | Browse Iconclass
- adult woman [31D15] Search | Browse Iconclass
- archer's weapons (with NAME) [45C15(ARROW)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- archer's weapons (with NAME) [45C15(BOW)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- birds [25F3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- female (human being) (not to be used where -AA- is prescribed) [31A(+82)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- five persons [31A(+75)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- fringe, edge of the wood [25H155] Search | Browse Iconclass
- low hill country [25H114] Search | Browse Iconclass
- quiver [45C23] Search | Browse Iconclass
- river [25H213] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees [25G3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- washing and bathing [31A54] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- Corruptibility, Venality, Corruption [59CC221] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Imitation; 'Imitatione' (Ripa) [51B6] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Jupiter, in the guise of Diana, and Callisto [92B1215] Search | Browse Iconclass
- man dressed as woman, travesty [41D282] Search | Browse Iconclass
- nymphs (in general); 'Ninfe in commune' (Ripa) [92L3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Publius Clodius (Claudius) Pulcher, dressed as a woman, introduces himself into the house of Julius Caesar during an annual ceremony of Bona Dea, and is discovered [98B(CLODIUS PULCHER, P.)51] Search | Browse Iconclass
- unsuccessful love affair; seduction [33C219] Search | Browse Iconclass
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