Indeed, to better illustrate the malice of the wicked, Alciati depicted a man throwing a stone that a dog then bites, with the title *One Sins, Another is Punished*. This refers to those who, being unable to harm the ones who actually hurt them, turn their desire for revenge upon the servants or friends of their adversaries. Young children often do something similar when, driven by anger, they break and burn the rods with which their parents have punished them.

If we turn our discussion to specific vices, Avarice presents itself first. To represent this, a man is depicted as a rival to Tantalus, submerged in water up to his mouth, with fruit-bearing branches hanging right before his face; yet he can neither pluck the fruit nor drink the water. The title is *The Wealthy Miser*. This whole concept is explained by these verses:

"Unhappy Tantalus, oppressed by his own desires, neither drinks amidst the water nor reaches the available fruit. This is the image of the great wealthy man, who possesses everything far and wide, yet endures hunger with a parched mouth."

Alciati intended to express the same idea when he portrayed a man with a lyre being thrown into the sea by sailors, only to be carried into port by a dolphin supporting him on its back. This emblem is titled *Against Misers*. Through it, he attempts to show that a man obsessed with wealth and greedy for profit is more savage than any beast of the sea or land. The theme seems to be taken from a Greek epigram in the first book of the *Anthology*, translated into Latin as follows:

"Once, pirates cast a lyre-player headlong from a ship into the vast reaches of the sea. Immediately, a dolphin appeared amidst the waves, lured by the pleasant and sweet-sounding lyre. It carried its passenger all the way to the Isthmus of Corinth, delivering him safe from the midst of the billows. From this it is clear that better fish are born in the untamed sea than men produced by the nurturing earth."

Herodotus treats this history—or rather, fable—which Ovid later recounted in the second book of the *Fasti*. It concerns Arion the lyre-player, who had acquired great wealth through his excellent skill. While returning to his homeland of Corinth, he fell among pirates who, driven by greed for his money, decided to kill him. When Arion realized this, he obtained their permission to play his strings one last time, then threw himself from the prow into the deep; a dolphin then caught him on its back and carried him all the way to Corinth.

After avarice comes the vice of gluttony, which Alciati seeks to express with a picture of a pot-bellied man with an elongated neck, holding a gull in his left hand and a pelican in his right. The title of the emblem is *Gluttony*. By this, he intends to show men who are slaves to their own voracity, sitting stuffed with food and snoring as they exhale the fumes of their excess. Since the gull is a most gluttonous bird that seeks its food from the sea and lakes, it is not without reason that some have compared a parasite to a famished gull. Likewise, the pelican is filled with an insatiable gullet; Martial, observing this in a certain glutton whose belly was always distended, wrote: "The foul throat of a Raven-born pelican."

To describe voluptuous luxury, Costalius painted an effeminate man dressed in beautiful clothes as he walks. This image represents a Sybarite, who does not permit anyone to touch a single fold of his garments; otherwise, lawsuits are sure to follow. Such was the nature and softness of these people that whenever they went out in public, they took such great care in the arrangement of their clothes that not a single fold would be disturbed.

To expose the vice of detraction, Alciati depicted a man driving away flies with a fan while holding a cicada in his other hand, titling the emblem *Against Detractors*. Thus he tries to represent a man who drives away impudent slanderers. Alciati composed this emblem, as some report, because he was annoyed at being criticized by certain schoolmasters.

To represent inertia, Alciati depicts a standing man, holding in his left hand a lit torch