Michael Maier, Atalanta Fugiens (1618)
Ceres, Thetis and Alchemical Nurture
In Emblem XXXV, scenes of nursing and fire accompany the names Ceres, Triptolemus, Thetis and Achilles. Maier uses their stories to explain a subject becoming accustomed to heat. The discourse begins with an example of education and habit, then carries that comparison into the philosophical work. It describes fire as nourishment, while clarifying that the stone does not thereby grow in size or weight: the changes he claims concern its power, maturity and colour. Maternal care and the treatment of material become parallel ways of picturing a gradual transformation.
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In the sources
Two stories of nurture
DocumentedThe motto names Ceres with Triptolemus and Thetis with Achilles as parallels for the artist’s treatment of the stone.
Nourishment without ordinary growth
DocumentedThe prose compares fire to a child’s nourishment, then says the stone gains maturity and colour rather than additional dimensions or weight.
Context & interpretation
The nursing and fire scenes belong to Maier’s mythological allegory of material change. The entry preserves his local reading of the named figures. Its emphasis on habit and maturation distinguishes this scene from the fire-resistant salamander of Emblem XXIX.
Original passages
Source 1
Atalanta Fugiens
Ceres Triptolemum, Thetis AchillemOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Atalanta Fugiens (1618), Emblem 35, motto, engraving and epigram, printed p. 149
Original scan and printed heading inspected; short Latin quotation normalizes spacing and ligatures. Historical English text consulted in Furnace and Fugue.
- Edition
- IMJ-0287-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0287-E001-P0150
- Original scan leaf
- 157
- Recorded leaf number
- 157
- Current Reader position
- 150
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
Atalanta Fugiens
Nutriendus enim est igneOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Atalanta Fugiens (1618), Emblem 35, Latin discourse, printed p. 150
Original scan and printed heading inspected; short Latin quotation normalizes spacing and ligatures. Historical English text consulted in Furnace and Fugue.
- Edition
- IMJ-0287-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0287-E001-P0151
- Original scan leaf
- 158
- Recorded leaf number
- 158
- Current Reader position
- 151
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 3
Atalanta Fugiens
Lapidis itaque nutrimentum ignis estOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Atalanta Fugiens (1618), Emblem 35, Latin discourse, printed p. 151
Original scan and printed heading inspected; short Latin quotation normalizes spacing and ligatures. Historical English text consulted in Furnace and Fugue.
- Edition
- IMJ-0287-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0287-E001-P0152
- Original scan leaf
- 159
- Recorded leaf number
- 159
- Current Reader position
- 152
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Illustrations
Continue exploring
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