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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [K2v p148]

Persei fabula.

The Tale of Perseus

Man in short robes and helmetholding a short sword aloft and a severed head in the other hand. A barrel with spurting holes is at his feet and a temple behind him. To his right is a man on a horse blowing a bugle.
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Perseus Gorgonis abscidisse fertur
Palladis clypeo caput tremendum,
Equo & praecipiti procul tulisse.[1]
Qui se delitiis libidinosis
Dicarunt, gelidi rigent sopore,
Membra & humidiora pituita
Facta pòst studiis parùm Minervae
Sunt apti, ac remorantur aptiores.
Haec tu subsidio faventis almae
Vinces Palladis anxio, & labore
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [K3r p149]Doctrinamque plagas feret per omnes,
Et sparget decus eruditionis
Latè alatus equus, vehet perenne
Fama nomen & orbe, posterisque.
Stratam Moeonides[2] quoque à Minerva
Prodidit Venerem, ac humi volutam.[3]
Haec sunt persica[4] quae tulit Mycenis
Pignus perpetuum sui relinquens.
Vel sic: res benè fortiterque gestae[5]
Scriptores pariunt bonos, aluntque.

Perseus, they say, cut off the Gorgon’s terrifying head for the shield of Pallas, and bore it far away on a racing horse. Those who have devoted themselves to vulgar desires are frozen in cold sleep, and once their limbs and phlegm turn clammier, they are of little use for the disciplines of Minerva, and hold back fitter men. These with anxious labour and the help of fostering Pallas you will conquer, and she will carry you through all the countries of learning, and the winged horse will spread the glory of knowledge far and wide, and Fame will bear your name all over the world forever and eternally. Maionides once too revealed that Venus was laid flat on her back and rolled in the dust by Minerva. These are the Persian fruits that he bore as an eternal pledge to Mycenae. Or, think of it this way: things well and bravely done give birth to good writers, and foster them.

Notes:

1.  In the original myth, Pegasus was born of the blood that dripped from the head of Medusa in a later adventure. By the Renaissance, it was already common to depict Perseus using the winged horse to escape the pursuing Gorgon sisters.

2.  Homer

3.  Iliad, 22

4.  Perseus was supposed to be the mythical ancestor of the Persians. Peaches are Persian apples.

5.  sc. res gestae, thing worthy of commemoration by the historian.

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