Book Title: Andreae Alciati emblematvm libellvs.

Author: Alciati, Andrea, 1492-1550

Image Title: Perpetual Fame Comes from Arduous Tasks

Description: The pictura of this emblem by the Italian jurist and writer Andrea Alciato (1492 – 1550 CE) depicts a portentous scene from the Iliad. When the Achaean leader gathered the alliance at Aulis, signs appeared that the seer Calchas then interpreted: a serpent darted from the altar during a sacrifice to Apollo and coming to a nearby plane-tree, devoured the mother sparrow and her eight chicks nesting in it. As divine punishment, the serpent was turned into stone. From this, the seer inferred that Troy would be taken at the end of a period of ten years. The subscriptio of this emblem appropriates this scene as a lesson that eternal fame is only won by arduous tasks.

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