Frontispiece to Oedipus Aegyptiacus

A monochrome engraving depicting a classical, bare-chested Oedipus standing in the foreground, gesturing with his right hand toward a Sphinx perched on a rocky cliff to his left. He carries a long spear in his left hand and wears a tunic and sandals. Behind him, palm trees and architectural structures suggestive of Egypt are visible. Above, emerging from clouds, two winged angels hold an open, oversized book displaying lists of names and symbolic grids, with floating circular medallions surrounding the book's base.

This image serves as the frontispiece to Athanasius Kircher's 'Oedipus Aegyptiacus' (1652–1654), a monumental work attempting to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs through the lens of Hermeticism and Christian theology. It characterizes the 17th-century intellectual obsession with Egypt as the cradle of all human wisdom and syncretic religious truth.