
DEFLORATIO.
DEFLORATION
Cum venus alma[1] Rosam in spineto carperet albam:
Laesit acuta Deam vulnere spina levi.
Sanguis & exiliit, quo mox Rosa tincta, colorem
Traxit (quae fuerat candida) purpureum.
Sic venus aetatis florem cùm excerpsit, in alba
Virgine: fit punctim plaga, cruórque fluit.
Quaeque prius medio Rosa candida floruit horto:
Panditur explicitis suave-rubens foliis.
While kind Venus plucked roses amid the thorns, a sharp thorn lightly wounded the goddess. The blood leapt forth, and the rose, now stained, put on a scarlet colour (it had been white before). Just so, when Venus picks the flower of youth in a white virgin, a blow is struck at a certain place and the blood flows, and she who before grew tall, a white rose in the middle of the garden, opens wider, red with unfolded petals.
1. alma, ‘nurturing Venus’ of Lucretius.
Related Emblems
Iconclass Keywords
Relating to the image:
- (high) hill [25H113] Search | Browse Iconclass
- adult woman [31D15] Search | Browse Iconclass
- birds [25F3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- cultivated land [25H18] Search | Browse Iconclass
- flower-bed [41A632] Search | Browse Iconclass
- garden [41A6] Search | Browse Iconclass
- shrubs (with NAME) [25G31(ROSE-BUSH)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Venus wounded by the thorns of a rose-bush; the roses change from white to red (possibly combined with the story of Adonis) [92C461] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- defloration, loss of virginity (and symbols) [33C42] Search | Browse Iconclass
- loss of virginity symbolized [33C421] Search | Browse Iconclass
- thorn, prickle [25G(+223)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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