
Nil omni parte securum.
Nothing is completely secure.
Aligeros Ibis colubros avertit ab oris,
Tetrior ex ovo sed basiliscus adest.
Hanc adeò Aegyptus coluit, sibi praesidiumque
Delegit contra lethifera Aethyopum.[1]
Nil est perpetuum, nil omni parte beatum:
Et venit utilitas concomitata malo.
Si prohibet longè quae tristia fata minantur,
Adiicit è proprio non leviora sinu.
Vera salus caelo: hîc nullius & integer usus.
Istic non cessat ver, viget omne decus.
The ibis frightens winged snakes from her shores; but look! A basilisk, even uglier, is emerging from the egg. Egypt worshipped the stork in ancient times, and made her its death-bringing defender against the Ethiopian. Nothing is always happy in every way, and useful things come conjoined with evil. If it holds off for a long time the horrid threats of evil fortune, still, it adds others, no less strong, of its own, from its own store. True safety is in heaven: here no one’s profit is complete; there Spring knows no end, and all beauty flourishes.
1. An allusion to the old story of the Pygmies and the Cranes, a fanciful Greek myth with no Egyptian connections at all, which occurs in a famous Iliadic simile (3.1ff).
Related Emblems
Iconclass Keywords
Relating to the image:
- (high) hill [25H113] Search | Browse Iconclass
- adult man (+ nude human being) [31D14(+89)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- animals (+ wings of an animal) [25F(+342)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm stretched sidewards [31A2513] Search | Browse Iconclass
- basilisk (cock with posterior of snake) (+ birth from an egg) [25FF311(+7411)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- fabulous animals ~ snakes (aspic, dragon, hydrus, hydra, amphisbaena, horned snake, cerastes) [25FF42(+739):31B62323] Search | Browse Iconclass
- fabulous animals ~ snakes (aspic, dragon, hydrus, hydra, amphisbaena, horned snake, cerastes) (+ fighting animals; aggressive relations) [25FF42(+751)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- fabulous animals ~ snakes (aspic, dragon, hydrus, hydra, amphisbaena, horned snake, cerastes) (+ wings) [25FF42(+542)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- falling (+ being frightened) [31A2731(+925)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- falling (+ sideways) [31A2731(+65)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- hand(s) bent towards the head [31A2531] Search | Browse Iconclass
- shore-birds and wading-birds: ibis (+ animal with forelegs stretched sidewards) [25F37(IBIS)(+553)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- shore-birds and wading-birds: ibis (+ fighting animals; aggressive relations) [25F37(IBIS)(+51)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- sitting on the ground [31A2351] Search | Browse Iconclass
- sitting or lying with one leg stretched forward and the other leg drawn up (+ sitting) [31A2626(+53)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees (+ stem, trunk) [25G3(+21)] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- geographical names of countries, regions, mountains, rivers, etc. (names of cities and villages excepted) (with NAME) [61D()] Search | Browse Iconclass
- geographical names of countries, regions, mountains, rivers, etc. (names of cities and villages excepted) (with NAME) [61D(ETHIOPIA)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Happiness, Felicity [56B2] Search | Browse Iconclass
- heaven, celestial paradise, New Earth [11S] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Misery; 'Miseria mondana' (Ripa) [56BB22] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Respect, Reverence, Esteem [57B2] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Safety [54D5] Search | Browse Iconclass
- shore-birds and wading-birds (with NAME) [25F37(STORK)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- spring, 'Ver'; 'Primavera' (Ripa) [23D42] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Uncertainty [52BB41] Search | Browse Iconclass
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