Atalanta Fugiens - Emblem 2d

A central female figure stands with a large terrestrial globe forming her midsection, revealing a nursing infant within the earth. In the foreground, a goat feeds a child on the left and a she-wolf feeds two infants on the right, set against a detailed landscape of castles and mountains. The scene visually translates the second verse of the Emerald Tablet, emphasizing the nourishing role of the material world in the alchemical process.

This engraving is the second emblem of Michael Maier’s 'Atalanta Fugiens' (1617), a seminal Rosicrucian work that combines alchemy, music, and myth. It specifically illustrates a line from the 'Emerald Tablet' of Hermes Trismegistus, asserting that 'the Earth is its nurse' in the generation of the philosopher's stone.