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This rectangular emblem, from Peacham's Minerva Britanna, shows a boar overwhelming a young man, who can be immediately recognized as Adonis, a famous figure in classical mythology, portrayed in the story of Venus and Adonis. The tusked animal's hooves are on the youth's chest and a useless spear lies under the man. The Aberdeen Bestiary states "the boar gets its name, aper, from its wildness a feritate, the letter "f " being replaced by a "p"; for the same reason, it is called by the Greeks suagros, meaning wild" (Aberdeen Bestiary, f. 21). If one is not familiar with the story of Adonis and Venus, the fact that the man is Adonis can be drawn from the accompanying verse, which elaborates on the story of Venus and her lover, Adonis. The first stanza of this verse reads:
I much did muse, why Venus could not brooke [break]The savadge Boare, and Lion cruell fierce,
Since Kings and Princes, have such pleasure tooke,
In hunting: cause a Boare did pierce
Her Adon faire, who better lik't the sport,
Then spend his daies, in wanton pleasures court.
This passage reveals that the author is surprised that the powers of Venus cannot make the boar less violent as they often would kill kings and princes, men who like to take part in hunting this animal. It also reveals that Adonis does not return the amount of love Venus has for him. Instead, he would rather hunt than be with her, spending his days "in wanton pleasures court" (Peacham, p. 169). The second, and last, stanza of this verse reads:
Which fiction though devised by Poets braine,It signifies unto the reader this;
Such exercise Love will not entertaine,
Who liketh best, to live in Idleness:
The foe to vertue, Cancker of the Wit,
That bringes a thousand miseries with it.
Here Peacham comments on the quality of love portrayed by this story, which is that fact that love does not do well in the presence of such exercises like hunting. Love does better in situations of idleness rather than action, for with action, comes the risk of problems arising, thus, complicating love. In this case, the boar happens to be that problem, which this emblem shows perfectly. It is appropriate to mention here that the Latin title of this emblem is Haud conveniunt, which, loosely translated, means "They come together not at all," an allusion to the fact that their love did not last.
In Edward Topsell's History of Foure-Footed Beasts, which gives a significant amount of information about the boar, he states that Adonis versus the boar is "an allegory of the sun and the Winter, for Adonis signifieth the Sun, and the Boar, the Winter: for the boar is a roughe and sharpe beaste, living in moyst cold, and places covered with frost and doth properly live upon winter fruits such as Acornes, so he is the fitter emblem for Winter, that is, a devourer of the Sun's heat, and warmth, both which fall away by death from all living creatures" (Topsell, p. 702). Here, Topsell shows reasons, such as its tendency to eat "winter" foods and its behavioral traits, why its associated with Winter and ultimately devours the warmth of Adonis ('the Sun'). From love's natural setting to the conflict of warmth and Winter, the boar has many interpretations.
It just so happens that the boar is also present in a significant amount of mythological literature. The story of Venus and Adonis is told, among many other stories, in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Ovid writes of Adonis as a "callow hero," yet one that walks with a "manly heart." This section out of the Metamorphoses reads:
His faithful hounds, led by the tainted wind,Lodg'd in thick coverts chanc'd a boar to find.
The callow hero show'd a manly heart,
And pierc'd the savage with a side-long dart.
The flying savage, wounded, turn'd again,
Wrench'd out the gory dart and foamed with pain.
The trembling boy by flight his safety sought,
And now recall'd the lore, which Venus taught;
But now too late to fly the boar he strove,
Who in the groin his tusks impetuous drove,
On the discolor'd grass Adonis lay,
The monster trampling o'er his beauteous prey.
It is this exact passage that is shown in Peacham 169, that of the savage boar trampling the helpless 'boy' Adonis. Here, it can be noted that Peacham cites the Metamorphoses directly by writing Ovid: Metam: 10 in the margin to the left of the verse. Book 10 is where this passage from Ovid was found. There is another instance, one very famous in literature that tells of the tragic story of Venus and Adonis by none other than William Shakespeare.
The rich language and vivid description characteristic of Shakespeare abound in this piece of lyric poetry and it is these elements that make this version of the story of Venus and Adonis seem much more heartbreaking than Ovid's account of the tale. As the relationship of Venus and Adonis is shown in great specificity, the meager part the boar plays in the story is also well described by Shakespeare. Venus spies the boar,
Whose frothy mouth, bepainted all with red,Like milk and blood being mingled both together,
A second fear through all her sinews spread,
Which madly hurries her she knows not whither:
This way runs, and now she will no further,
But back retires to rate the boar for murther.
The boar is shown to have a frothy mouth, a common description of the boar found in many places, and a reddish color. The story then tells of Venus' differing opinions on whether or not Adonis is actually dead as she hears voices of other hunters in the forest. Her heart wavers, believing first, he is, and then, is not, dead. Thus, when she finds him, he is dying and sees a flower spring up from his blood, eternalizing him. It is interesting to note, "The name Adonis is etymologically to adon, a Semitic word meaning "lord" that occurs in the Old Testament in the form Adonai" (Encarta, 2001). After the boar kills him, Venus pleads with Zeus for his life. Zeus consents and lets Adonis live half the year with Venus and the other half with Proserpine, another of Adonis' admirers. Thus, the association of the name Adonis, a man who was reborn, with the Semitic word for "lord" does not seem coincidental. This emblem may in fact be a religious commentary designed to remind viewers of the afterlife.
Moving away from the story of Venus and Adonis, yet still within the realm of mythology, there are still many stories involving the boar. One of these stories,also contained in Ovid's Metamorphoses, is of Atalanta and Meleager and is summarized in Edith Hamilton's Mythology: it "was a terrible creature sent to ravage the country of Calydon by Artemis in order to punish the King, Oeneus, because he forgot her when sacrificing the first fruits to the gods at harvest-time" (Hamilton, p. 181). Introducing the stories of Atalanta, the maiden warrior who wounded the Calydonian boar first, Hamilton mentions that Ovid "gives the charming picture of Atalanta among the hunters, but often, as in the description of the boar, is so exaggerated, he verges on the ridiculous" (Hamilton, p. 180). Three passages that exhibit such 'exaggerated' descriptions from the Metamorphoses are:
No larger bulls th' Aegyptian pastures feed,And none so large Sicilian meadows breed:
His eye-balls glare with fire suffus'd with blood;
His neck shoots up a thick-set thorny wood;
His bristled back a trench impal'd appears,
And stands erected, like a field of spears;
Froth fills his chaps, he sends a grunting sound,
And part he churns, and part befoams the ground,
For tusks with Indian elephants he strove,
And Jove's own thunder from his mouth he drove.
He burns the leaves; the scorching blast invades
The tender corn, and shrivels up the blades:
Or suff'ring not their yellow beards to rear,
He tramples down the spikes, and intercepts the year.
…………………………………………...
From hence the boar was rous'd, and sprung amain,
Like lightning sudden, on the warrior train;
Beats down the trees before him, shakes the ground.
The forest echoes to the crackling sound;
…………………………………………….............
This chaf'd the boar, his nostrils flames expire,
And his red eye-balls roul with living fire.
Whirl'd from a sling, or from an engine thrown,
Amid the foes, so flies a mighty stone,
As flew the beast.
These show several characteristics of the boar that "scholarly" people of old believed to be natural for the boar. In The History of Four-Footed Beasts, Topsell states that boars can "burn the haires from their [dog's] backs [due] to the ardent and fiery nature of this beast [and] they cannot abide their own urine, for it is thought to be so hot, that it burneth them" (Topsell, p. 696). Topsell goes on to say boars are so "inflamed by venereal rage, he so setteth upright the bristles of his neck, that one would take them to be the sharp fins of dolphins. Concerning the disposition of boars in general, it is brutish, stubborn, and yet courageous; wrathful and furious, because their blood is full of fibres, amd ministreth unto them sudden anger" (Topsell, p. 697). Even in 1607 (year of Topsell's work), the view of boars would still be considered by us, and Hamilton, ridiculously exaggerated, mostly because these people knew little of animal science and animal behavior and thus, what they saw is what they believed to be true. Hamilton might have not considered that Ovid might have been trying to appeal to a wider audience and thus added over-elaborate descriptions to get an effect somewhat like today's campfire tales.
Aristotle, in On the Parts of Animals, elaborates a little on the concept of fibres, and their consequent effect on a boar's behavior, mentioned above. He states "bulls and boars are so choleric and passionate for their blood is exceedingly rich in fibres…If these fibres are taken out of the blood, it will no longer coagulate…But if the fibres are left, the fluid coagulates under the influence of cold," so the animal must have a high body heat in order to keep its blood fluid (Aristotle, Book II). This heated blood drives the boars' anger. This angry heat is manifested in the boar's urine, as it is so hot it can burn them, and the fact that the mere presence of a boar can burn the hairs off hunting dogs. The tusks of the boar are also very heated and deadly: "the heat of his teeth inflicteth a dangerous wound" and "their tusks are most admirable, for with them while they are alive, they cut like sharp knives, but when they are dead, they have lost that cutting property, the reason of it is in the heat of the tooth" (Topsell, p. 696, 700). While alive, the boars' heat also flows through the tusks. If a dog or a man touches the tusks directly after killing a boar, they will be severely burned, as the heat of the boar is still present in the tusk.
Another attribute of boars, in general, discussed by Topsell is the behavior of the hunted boar. "The burning of the bladder doth quickly make him weary," so if the chase is on a boar that has not "eased himself" the hunter should find the boar more manageable. Topsell writes "if the boar have either made water before, or got liberty and rest in the chase to ease himself, then will his taking be very difficult and tedious, such is the nature of this courageous beast, that he never ceaseth running 'til he be weary" (Topsell, p. 699). This characteristic is shown in another mythological story, the last of the three most famous boar stories of ancient Greco-Roman mythology, that of Hercules and the fourth labor. In Mythology, Hamilton writes, "the fourth labor was to capture a great boar which had its lair on Mount Erymanthus. He chased the beast from one place to another until it was exhausted; then he drove it into deep snow and trapped it" (Hamilton, p. 171). The heat of its own body drove it to weariness, and thus made it easy for Hercules to cage it.
As stated earlier, the boar, in one interpretation, represented the Winter. In another, with Adonis representing the lord (adon = lord), the boar, as it is associated with excessive heat and is opposing Adonis (the lord), might represent Satan, and the emblem as a whole might show that even in the face of Satan's oppression, the lord (Adonis) rose again. There are many other emblems that have the boar in them including emblems in Parradin and Wither, yet they are so enumerated that the links to them will be provided below. Here, a small portion of this vast number of interpretations of the boar, including its hot and fiery nature, how it could be a representative of Satan, the association of the boar with Winter, and its savageness in Shakespeare and mythological stories, was presented.
Wither
http://f01.middlebury.edu/fs010a/mirror/withe038.htm
Paraddin
http://f01.middlebury.edu/fs010a/mirror/parad097.htm
Works Cited
Aberdeen Bestiary. From Aberdeen University Library MS 24 online. 1200?
http://www.clues.abdn.ac.uk:8080/besttest/alt/comment/best_toc.html
Aristotle. On the Parts of Animals. From MIT Classics. 350 B.C.E.?
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/parts_animals.2.ii.html
Encarta Online Encyclopedia. "Adonis." 2001. (Nov. 4, 2001)
Hamilton, Edith. Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes. New York: Warner Books, Inc., 1942.
Ovid. Metamorphoses. From MIT. 1 A.C.?
http://classics.mit.edu/Ovid/metam.html
Shakespeare, William, The Complete Works of. Michigan: State Street Press, 2001.
Topsell, Edward. History of Foure-Footed Beastes. (London, 1607).
