History of Monsters. 153

with the image of a shaved head, they signified that all superfluous things should be removed. When they presented an image of a human head that was partly adorned with hair and a beard and partly bald, Valeriano tells us the Egyptians understood this to mean a traveler; this is because Osiris, while waging war against the Giants in Italy—where he was a foreigner—let his beard and hair grow, but upon returning to his homeland, he removed not only his beard but his hair as well. Diodotus contends that a picture of a bare female head, lacking any ornaments (the kind of head nymphs usually have), is a hieroglyph for a Muse. Conversely, among the Corinthians, a female head of a horrific appearance was an image of terror. For this reason, it is said that Domitian wore the head of Medusa depicted on his breast to strike fear into everyone.

So far, we have discussed the figure of the head alone. Now, the head joined with other features produces different hieroglyphs. Thus, the Egyptians depicted a human head together with a donkey's head to represent an ignorant man—especially one who wastes his entire life at home and never travels abroad to observe the customs of other people. Furthermore, by depicting two human heads, they expressed guardianship, and by the figure of three heads, they understood the Moon, since she rules in the Heavens, on the Earth, and in the subterranean places. Others, however, used this to indicate past, present, and future time, or the threefold division of the month (since every month is divided into Calends, Nones, and Ides). When the four-headed or four-faced Janus was depicted in antiquity, it demonstrated the four seasons of the year. Finally, by a seven-headed man, they denoted one who is polymathic; according to certain astrologers, a hieroglyph decorated with seven heads is placed at the fifteenth degree of Gemini, and they report that anyone born under this degree will be a person of many talents.

Let us descend from the head to the eyes, which represent various hieroglyphs. In primis, the figure of an eye signified God. Just as in the microcosm (the human body) the eyes are considered the most beautiful and excellent of all parts, acting as the moderators of all actions, so in the macrocosm (the universe), God Almighty moderates everything. Moreover, the eye shares in light—sometimes so effectively that it can see even amidst the horrific darkness of the dead of night. Therefore, the figure of the eye is not without reason likened to God, whom we proclaim to be the perennial fount and origin of eternal light.

Valeriano wrote that an eye depicted at the top of a royal scepter denoted the moderator of all things, since the scepter indicated dignity and the eye indicated light. However, Caelius Calcagninus asserted that Osiris was denoted by such a figure, adding that the eyes of Horus in Egyptian hieroglyphs represent the Sun and the Moon. Cartarius also understood the Sun through an eye painted on the tip of a scepter, since it gazes upon the whole sky and everything beneath it day by day; hence, some later called the Sun "the eye of Jove."

Furthermore, the Egyptian priests depicted a "parent eye" to show a guardian of justice. For this reason, Plato not unfairly sometimes called Justice "the observer," and Chrysippus established the eyes of Justice as sharp and unmoving, lest they be deflected this way or that from what is honorable. Others, however, understood life by an open eye and death by a closed one. Some painted an eye to express the author of momentary pleasure, following the poet’s line: "In case you didn't know, the eyes are the leaders in love."

Yet Pierio, through the image of eyes with hairless lids, expressed a man given to luxury, since the eyelashes sometimes tend to fall out from the practice of venery. Further, according to Valeriano, the depiction of an eye denotes favor and benefit; for we look kindly upon those we favor, and things pleasing to us are compared to the pupils of our eyes. Indeed, a faithful man was shown by the depiction of an eye, according to the common saying: "The eye is a more certain witness than the ear." When two eyes were depicted above two heads, they represented the divine spirits, since divinity was understood through the eyes and the spirits through the heads. Finally, among the Egyptians, the eye was a hieroglyph for speech; although the figure of a tongue showed simple speech, when they wished to demonstrate refinement and eloquence, they would depict a vivid eye together with the tongue.

From the eyebrows, according to Valeriano, we have the hieroglyph for one who contemplates sublime things is held