effort, he paved a way for himself to the heavens. In this way, young people standing at the crossroads of life are warned. They are in great danger of being deceived by the charms of pleasure and led away from the straight path of virtue into shallows and onto reefs. If they do not stumble at that age, there is hope that they can reach the finish line with a steady pace. Alciatus also shows an image of a youth giving weapons to another, representing Hector and Ajax. The inscription is in Greek: *ΕΧΘΡΩΝ ΔΩΡΑ ΑΔΩΡΑ*. As Ajax notes in Sophocles, after receiving a sword from his greatest enemy, Hector, he gained nothing from the Greeks but ruin. Thus, the inscription "Gifts from enemies are no gifts" fits the emblem perfectly. Even a gift of no value from a friend should be welcomed, while the most precious gift from an enemy must be despised as dangerous. Such things should be called not just *adora* (non-gifts) but *kakodora* (evil gifts).

Finally, Florentius depicts a youth reaching out to touch the hand of Fortune, with the title "Nothing for Lazy Prayers." A famous Spartan proverb says that one should invoke Fortune only while setting one's hand to the task. We recall mentioning elsewhere that one must goad the oxen while imploring Jupiter’s help; otherwise, the prayer is empty. Divine aid is not won through vows and pleas alone, but by acting, staying vigilant, and taking sound counsel. This concludes the emblems featuring images of youths.

Now we must consider those depicting adult men. I remember seeing a picture of a man picking apples with the inscription "Man is Like an Apple," decorated with this verse: "As unripe apples on the branches fall, or rot upon the ground if not picked in time, so are our bodies snatched away by a sudden fate while still green, or they drop when exhausted by the years."

One can also find various images of men engaged in diverse activities. Alciatus, for instance, depicted a man dressed in goatskin catching a sargo fish with a net, titled "On the Lovers of Harlots." The theme is drawn from the nature of the sargo, which is caught after being deceived by a masked fisherman. This emblem is directed at those who, blinded by a foul and hidden love, fall into the snare of a disguised prostitute, thinking that what appears beautiful actually is. They forget the common saying that one ought to know a person before loving them. Ovid sang aptly on this point: "Consider quickly in your mind the nature of what you love, and withdraw your neck from the yoke that will wound you."

Costalius intended to signify the same when he depicted a man with a *dipsas* snake coiled around his neck, representing one held by a harlot’s love. We explained in the *History of Serpents* that the dipsas is a symbol of a prostitute. The inscription is *In ΠΑΡΘΕΝΟΠΙΠΑΣ*—a word referring to men who are overly eager spectators of young women. Since we have touched upon fishing, we should not pass over an image in Camerarius showing a man observing a pike devouring its own offspring, with the inscription "It Does Not Spare Its Own Fosterlings." I included this because the author, in a two-line verse, compares man to this creature: "Just as the pike rages against its own kind to fill its belly, so do men consume themselves."

Alciatus also depicts a man catching eels, titled "On Those Who Grow Rich from Public Misfortune." The author suggests that just as eels are only caught when the water is turbid and muddy, there are some men who disturb everything so they can increase their own wealth. The theme seems taken from Aesop’s fable of the fisherman who muddied the water so the fleeing fish would swim blindly into his nets. When asked about this disturbance, the fisherman replied that if the water were not muddied, he would surely starve. Thus, by a common proverb, those who stir up trouble for private gain are said to be "fishing for eels." The words