Hermetic Termini and Ancient Monuments

The image is a black-and-white woodcut or etching showing a series of ancient-style monuments situated in a barren coastal landscape. On the left, a winged bust rests on a tall rectangular pillar, followed by a bust on a tapering, triangular base, a central bust resting on a tiered stone mound, a fourth bust on a standard pedestal, and an unadorned rounded stone pillar on the far right. A second stone mound sits near the right-hand pillar. The background includes a stylized sea with a small sailing vessel and a dolphin or sea creature. The foreground contains winding river-like lines or paths, and a Roman numeral 'IIII' is inscribed on the ground near the far-right monument.

This plate is taken from Athanasius Kircher's 'Oedipus Aegyptiacus' (1652–1654), a monumental work attempting to decode Egyptian hieroglyphs as a primordial, universal wisdom language. The depiction of 'hermai' or 'termini' reflects Kircher's obsession with tracing the global diffusion of Egyptian religion and hermetic symbolism into Greco-Roman culture.