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The cave canem mosaic at the entrance to Casa del Poeta Tragico (meaning House of the Tragic Poet) in Pompeii, Italy.
About the photo: Taken 9 September 2018 – photographer unknown. It appears on 12 groups.
GLOSSARY
Cave canem, Latin meaning, beware of the dog.
A tragic poet is someone who writes about tragedies. This genre often focuses on serious, somber themes and typically ends in disaster or death for its main characters. While tragedy originated in ancient Greek drama, it also has a place in poetry.
Philippians 3:2: Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. [‘Dogs’, in this context, symbolises certain individuals who were causing trouble or spreading false teachings. It’s a powerful reminder to be discerning and cautious about misleading influences.]
Matthew 5:15: Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick. [Meaning, to conceal one’s talents or accomplishments.]
Black Shuck (folklore): ‘This black dog, or the devil in such a likeness (God he knoweth all who worketh all) running all along down the body of the church with great swiftness, and incredible haste, among the people, in a visible form and shape, passed between two persons, as they were kneeling upon their knees, and occupied in prayer as it seemed, wrung the necks of them both at one instant clean backward, in so much that even at a moment where they kneeled, they strangely died.’
This incident took place on 4 August 1577 and was described in Reverend Abraham Fleming’s book A Straunge and Terrible Wunder. Black Shuck, a name derived from an old English word meaning demon.