290 Ulisse Aldrovandi

of every sex, rank, and age are depicted; among these people, a white woman and a black woman can be seen. This image of Cupid bears weapons against men, a torch against women, a bow against wild beasts, and wings because of birds; finally, he is painted naked so that he may enter the waters. Those women, one painted white and the other black, signify day and night. Today, however, painters represent Cupid as a naked boy, deprived of sight and armed with arrows and a bow, and they call him the God of Love. But a certain poet rightly wonders why Love is called and painted blind when he is actually quite keen-sighted. Moreover, as we have explained elsewhere that the eyes are the guides in love, he offers his opinion in these verses: namely, that this image arises because Cupid makes others blind.

Was he blind, the one who fashioned Love as blind? Love is not blind; he is far too sharp-eyed. For those eyes are watchful, leering, and fierce, Which he readies, aimed at every crime. Here he softly uses allurements, and here he chooses The first tribunal of his empire to be. One eye keeps watch in these, and from them he hurls his darts, Whether he tries to strike men or gods. In these eyes, he pierces the breast of the unwary lover; Soon the wretch, having received the wound, departs blind. Thus, because he perhaps makes blind those who follow his camp, Love is said, for that reason, to be deprived of both eyes.

There were also those who, following Cartari's opinion, painted Cupid naked and winged with two keys, establishing him as the guardian of the twin gates of Heaven. The ancients declared that one of these stands open for the soul descending into the body, and the other for the soul ascending from the body into Heaven; the latter being the gate of the gods, the former the gate of men. I also remember seeing, as an image of Cupid, a naked winged boy who, having set aside his bow, was playing a lyre. Alternatively, to signify Cupid and Anteros, Cartari depicts two naked winged boys equipped with quivers, struggling together so that one seems to want to snatch a palm branch from the other; for wherever reciprocal love is found, there is undoubtedly a contest on both sides to see who can outdo the other in loving.

In another version from the same Cartari, the image of Lethean Cupid—who erases love through forgetfulness—is expressed by the figure of a naked winged boy armed with a quiver, attempting to extinguish a lit torch in a river.

Now we come to the portrayal of Bacchus, who is represented by the image of a naked boy sitting on a rock and holding a cluster of grapes in both hands. Alternatively, according to Cartari, Bacchus is painted as a man with a long beard and a long robe, lying in a cave surrounded by vines and holding out a cup. In the famous city of Heraclea, where Bacchus was the patron god, he was depicted as a man with a sacrificial bowl in his right hand and clusters of grapes in his left. Others, to represent Bacchus, used the image of a naked man with a cluster of grapes in his right hand and a tiger skin in his left. Among others, Bacchus appeared as a beardless man crowned with ivy. Finally, some of the ancients depicted Bacchus crowned with grapes, with a rod in his right hand and poppy heads in his left; by the figure of the poppy, they suggested the sleep that follows drinking, and by the symbol of the rod, they signaled that drunkards deserve punishment—a sentiment expressed by this couplet:

Namely, that full of wine, he gives his body to sleep, And the next day, let him know he has earned his punishment.

Neptune is counted among these images as well; for according to Cartari, he was painted as a man with sea-blue hair, holding a trident and a trumpet, standing in a sea-shell drawn by two horses that end in fish at their rear. The ancients assigned a trident to Neptune because of the three seas, or to indicate the three distinct types of water—namely, the sea, springs, and lakes—over all of which this god was said to preside. Alternatively, by the same author, the painting of a naked man with three leather thongs in his right hand and a cloth hanging from his shoulders also signifies Neptune. Others, in rendering Neptune's image, portrayed a naked man pressing one foot upon the prow of a ship, with a dolphin in his right hand,