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Commentary on Emblem 1
The Pellaean king is Alexander the Great (Pella is a city in
Macedonia). Alexander's mother was Olympias: " a serpent was once
seen lying stretched out by [her] side ... as she slept, and ...
this ... dulled the ardour of Philip's attentions to his wife, so
that he no longer came often to sleep by her side" (Plutarch
"Alexander" 2 in Lives), the suggestion being that
Alexander was sired by the god. Ammon is a periphrasis for
Jupiter, the name from the temple in his honour in Egypt.
Alexander once travelled on his conquests to Ammon; the priest
greeted him as the son of the god (though Plutarch ibid 27
explains that the priest may have mispronounced o paidion
[o my son] as o paidios [o son of god]). Certain snakes
are said by Pliny to produce their young from the mouth (ex
ore). Pallas (Athena) sprang full-grown from the head of
Jupiter (Ovid and elsewhere). So the shield, which is mysterious,
is explained in riddles, and the answers to the riddles manifest
political power (Alexander), natural mystery (the snakes), and
possibly even divine power (Athena). All add up to a very
satisfying compliment to the patron, Massimiliano, and a piece of
flattery quite typical for the time.
This emblem first appeared in the unauthorized edition of 1531. We give the illustration which first appeared on sig A2r. In
the first authorized edition of 1534 the illustration appeared on page 5r.
There is a French translation of this emblem by Lefevre, conventionally
numbered 1 in
the unpaged edition of Paris: Wechel, 1536 at the Glasgow University emblem site. You
may compare the Latin and French in frames.

Last modified 11 February 1998