Bestiary: Flattery, Prudence and Folly
Moralized creatures — the singing siren, the provident ant, and the wild ox
A page of Leonardo's moralized bestiary, written in mirror script with no diagrams, pairing a moral quality with an emblematic creature. Flattery is the siren whose sweet song lulls sailors to sleep before she boards their ships and kills them; Prudence is the ant that stores seed against winter, killing the grain so it will not sprout. Folly is figured by the wild ox that, hating the color red, charges a tree-trunk draped in red until it drives its horns in and is slain by the waiting hunters.
On this page
Flattery — the siren who sings sailors to their death
Flattery, or cajolery, is figured by the siren, who sings so sweetly that she lulls the sailors asleep. She then climbs aboard the ships and kills the sleeping men.
Prudence — the provident ant
Prudence is the ant, which by natural counsel provides in summer for the winter, killing the seed it has gathered so that it will not sprout again, and in due season feeds on it.
Folly — the wild ox and the red-clad tree
Folly is the wild ox, which hates the color red. The hunters dress the trunk of a tree in red; the ox charges it and with great fury drives its horns into it, whereupon the hunters kill it.