OCCVLTA VERITAS. TEMPORE PATET

HIDDEN TRUTH COMES TO LIGHT BY TIME

In this Emblem from the 1628 title page of New Atlantis , bound in at the end of Sylva Sylvarvm , we see "an anthropomorphic, composite and naked figure. From the waist down this creature has the attributes of the Greek god Pan; like Pan, he has the shaggy short tail, legs and cloven hooves of a goat, but on his shoulders sprout wings. The head is human and aged; from the chin dangles a long beard. In his right hand he holds the scythe of Father Time and he straddles an hour-glass. He stands upon boulders in front of a cave which are jumbled in a pile; these must have previously blocked the entrance.
"Emerging from the cave is an unclothed maiden wearing a crown of bays or laurels. Pan is assisting her; with his left hand he grips her left wrist. ... The maiden must be 'Echo,' a nymph beloved by Pan in Greek mythology. For some reason she was dismembered by angry shepherds and her fragments buried, but forever after she could be heard singing underground and imitating the voices of other vocalists.
"In mythology Pan had many characteristics. He was the son of Hermes (the messenger of the gods)... He had the gift of prophecy and was known as an avenger of wrongs... In the middle ages he became the patron god of pastoral poets.
"So here in Bacon's odd emblem we see the central figure of Pan conjoined with Father Time; he has wings because 'time flies.' He is righting a wrong by liberating from a cave the maiden Echo who also symbolizes, according to the first two words of the circumscripted epigram, hidden truth." (@ Leary 192-3)

OCCVLTA VERITAS => sggcpBE CIYNbea

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