Note 104 — ESSAYS. (continued 2)

I cannot help considering the figure of Ocnus, who was represented as twisting a rope of rushes for a she ass to devour, as an emblem of the inactivity—the doing of nothing in the grave. We have a single picture, by another painter of the same subject, as an emblem of idleness, mentioned by Pliny. Pausanias, however, calls the ass of Ocnus the emblem of a thriftless wife.