On Famous Women

[She was the only one] of the young women who, upon seeing her bridegroom, immediately loved him. Because of this, moved by great compassion for him, she refrained from the unspeakable slaughter, to her own great glory. She persuaded the youth to flee to a place where he would be safe.

Truly, when the fierce father had applauded the other daughters in the morning for the crime they had performed, Hypermnestra alone was rebuked. Locked away in prison, she wept for some time over her pious work original: "pium... opus." The author uses "pious" ironically or paradoxically; while she disobeyed her father, she was "pious" (dutiful) to the higher laws of marriage and humanity..

Alas, wretched mortals! With what a greedy and fervent spirit we seize upon things that are destined to perish. Scorning to look upon our own eventual downfall, by what execrable ways do we climb to high places (if the opportunity is offered)! By what crimes do we preserve those heights we have reached! It is as if we might believe that fickle Fortune original: "volubilem... fortunam." The author references the common medieval and Renaissance trope of the Wheel of Fortune, which is constantly turning and never stable. can be made firm by filthy wealth. And what is ridiculous is by what crimes and wicked deeds we try—I will not say to lengthen, but to make eternal—this fleeting and fragile "little day" of our life original: "dieculam," a diminutive of "dies" (day), used here to emphasize how pathetically short a human life is compared to eternity., even though we are certain to go toward death...