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76 PETER A. ROLLANDsuggestive vocabulary, with its stress on the poisonous and infernal, is toterrify the reader into swift and unhesitating acceptance of the profferedmeans of escaping eternal damnation—binding onself to "the Life-givingCross."Analysis of the ideological transformation of Polacki's sources revealsthat the poet has transformed the motifs contained in them to suit his newreligious purposes as well. The myths of Scylla and Charybdys are distinctfrom that of the Sirens. Their use here, as well as the reference to Cerberus,monstrous watchdog of Hades, is motivated solely by the author's desire toevoke terror in the reader. Polacki's own ideological position motivated stillanother recasting of a classical motif. As we know, classical myth (andAlciati's emblem) made reference to Odysseus's escape from the Sirens, asgiven in Book XII of the Odyssey. Known for his sly, amoral nature, the"wily Odysseus" did not suit Polacki's purpose. Hercules, on the otherhand, was a hero known for overcoming a series of monstrous beings andfor the performance of impossible feats. In one interpretation contemporaryto Połacki, Hercules and his adventures illustrated the neccesity for avoidingLuxury and female entrapment. 18Polacki's creative reinterpretation of classical myth and emblematicliterature is not unique; rather, it reflects the author's understanding of theprinciple of imitatio, the principle that artistic perfection could be attainedby modeling one's own work on that of acknowledged masters. While other18M. K. Sarbiewski, Dii gentium. Bogowie pogan, introduced, edited, and translated byKrystyna Stawecka, compiled initially by St. Skimina in collaboration with Maria Skimina,Biblioteka pisarzów polskich, series b, no. 20, (Wroclaw, 1972), Caput XLI Hercules, pp.492-527, discusses Hercules' attributes as a virfortis (mąż dzielny). "Roskosz" echoes someof Sarbiewski's observations: "I. Nihil esse magis vitandum femineis illecebris" [Nothingshould be avoided more than feminine allure] (p. 506); "XIV. Magna ingenia ad malum aequeet ad bonum strenua sum. Lege Xenophontem libv. Пр. 131, prolixe describentem, quomodoHerculi deliberanti de statu vitae, virtutisne via an voluptatis ad gloriam grassaretur occureritVirtus et Voluptas" [Outstanding souls are inclined equally to good and evil. Read Xenophonbk. П, p. 131, who describes profusely how Hercules deliberated on the course of his life,whether to achieve glory by the path of virtue or by that of luxury after he had been confrontedby Virtue and Luxury (themselves)] (p. 513); "XXIX. Forti maxime voluptas fugienda" [Thebrave should avoid Luxury most of all] (p. 518).According to Stawecka's introductory comments (pp. 8-9), Sarbiewski's mythologicaltreatise was formulated while he was a lecturer at the Jesuit collegium in Połack in 1626 andwas widely circulated in manuscript for at least the next ninety years. The close resonancebetween the cited passages and "Roskosz" and Simiaon's own physical presence in at least oneof two places connected with the manuscript tradition (Vilnius or Połack) make it very probablethat he was acquainted with Sarbiewski's tract. Luzny's documented assertion (Pisarzekręgu, pp. 29-30) that Polacki's Commendatio brevis Poeticae. Anno 1646 is related in part toSarbiewski's "De acuto et arguto," in M. K. Sarbiewski, Wykłady poetyky (Praecepta poética),translated and edited by St. Skimina (Wroclaw, 1958), pp. 1 -20, makes it even more certainthat Polacki was familiar with Dii gentium, and that its ideology is reflected in "Roskosz."