270 Ulisse Aldrovandi

...the words of Aristophanes elegantly declare this:

"You have done just as he who catches eels: When the pools are still, he hunts nothing; But when he has stirred up all the mud this way and that, The catch is great. You too, once you have thrown This city into turmoil, seize the most from it."

Since eels have been mentioned, we find a picture in Alciati of a man gripping an eel with a fig leaf, bearing the inscription: "On the One Caught." This signifies that human faith, which often slips away through deceits, must be held fast by force, just as a slippery eel is easily restrained by the rough leaf of a fig tree. The subject is taken from the common adage, "An eel with a fig leaf," which was used against those who grip anything slippery so tightly that it can in no way slide away.

Furthermore, since we are discussing human figures depicted with animals, it is not unreasonable to mention Alciati’s illustration of a man aiming arrows at birds while his foot is bitten by a snake, under the inscription: "He Who Contemplates High Things Falls." This signifies that he who pursues others is often overwhelmed by something unexpected. The author suggests to us that the mind should not be so focused on distant things that it fails to consider those nearby, as we explained in our *History of Serpents*.

Likewise, in the same author, there is an image of a man leaving his house who encounters a weasel at the very threshold, with the inscription: "Beginning with Good Omens." Superstitious antiquity believed it was an unlucky omen to encounter a monk, a urinating bird, a hare, or a weasel at first sight. They believed that great power resided in the favorable start of any undertaking; therefore, they said that matters which suffered an unfortunate beginning could hardly reach a good conclusion. This relates to the line from Sophocles, as rendered by Plutarch: "Whoever begins a matter with right reason will surely hope for its good end."

Coustau depicts a venerable man in a chariot drawn by a team of four, adorned with the title: "Honor Due to a Learned Man." Indeed, according to some, this figure represents Plato.

Florentius also painted a man in a toga binding Fortune, who lies stretched upon the ground, with the title: "The Wise Man Above Fortune." Thus he teaches that the wise man is by no means ruled by Fortune, since the mind of the wise man is free. Liberty, in Cicero's opinion in the *Paradoxes*, is the power to live as you wish. He who lives as he wishes follows what is right and obeys the laws not out of fear, but because he judges it to be most healthy and useful. It belongs to the wise man alone to do nothing by force and nothing against his will.

Finally, Alciati presents a picture of a Sarmatian man who possesses nothing except the skins that cover his whole body; the inscription is: "All That is Mine I Carry With Me." The subject seems taken from the historian Justin, who, in describing the region of the Scythians, recorded that some of them have no home, but live in the wilderness with their wives and children, grazing their herds. From this we conclude that one who possesses nothing is safe from thieves, according to the popular verse: "The empty-handed traveler will sing in the face of the robber."

There remain other human figures depicted by authors to represent those who sin and commit crimes. Reusner, for example, places before our eyes the image of a man on a chair over a well, with a sword hanging over his head and five swords striking him from various sides. The title is: "A Mirror of the Sinful Man." Similar to this was an emblem by Florentius, where a sword is seen hanging by a thread over the head of a seated, crowned man, with the title: "The Most Miserable Life of Tyrants." Nor is Reusner’s depiction different in meaning when he shows a man whose liver is being devoured by an eagle (referring to Tityus), with the inscription: "O Life, Long for the Wretched." Thus, the final couplet of the ten-line poem concludes with this sentiment:

"Thus the liver of Tityus, unconsumed and ever-renewing, Does not perish entirely, so that it may perish the more often."