There is a book of alchemy that you look at, read and sing. It is Michael Maier's Atalanta fugiens, published in Oppenheim in 1617. It joins three arts in a single project: engraving, poetry and music. It is a rare example of how the Hermetic tradition sought to speak to all the senses, not only to the intellect.
The author
Michael Maier was a German physician and alchemist who lived at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. For a time he worked at the court of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague, one of the great centres of alchemy of the period, and he wrote numerous works in Latin in which alchemical doctrine is woven together with classical mythology. For Maier, Greek and Egyptian myths were not fables but coded accounts of the processes of the Work.
The structure of the book
Atalanta fugiens is made up of fifty emblems. Each emblem follows the same pattern, regularly repeated:
| Element | Content |
|---|---|
| Motto | a short sentence, often taken from alchemical texts |
| Engraving | an image illustrating the motto |
| Epigram | a few Latin verses commenting on the image |
| Fugue | a three-voice musical composition |
| Discourse | a prose explanation, rich in classical references |
The engravings are attributed to the workshop of Matthäus Merian, one of the leading engravers of the time, and their quality contributed greatly to the book's success.
Some famous emblems
- The first emblem shows a figure of the wind carrying a child in its belly, illustrating the Emerald Tablet's phrase: «the wind carried it in its belly».
- The second takes up the next phrase of the Tablet, «the earth is its nurse», with the image of the earth suckling a child.
- Other emblems show an egg to be struck with a fiery sword, a hermaphrodite lying in darkness, a wolf devouring a king, a dragon biting its own tail.
Each image translates an aphorism of the tradition into visual form, making it easy to remember.
The myth of Atalanta
The title refers to a Greek myth. Atalanta was a very swift young huntress who had promised to marry only the man who could beat her in a race; whoever lost, lost his life. Hippomenes managed to defeat her thanks to three golden apples given to him by Aphrodite: he dropped them during the race, and Atalanta stopped to pick them up.
For Maier the myth is an alchemical allegory. Atalanta, fleeing, represents the volatile principle, Mercury; Hippomenes, pursuing her, represents the fixed principle, Sulphur; the golden apples are what slows the flight and allows the union. The story thus becomes the image of the coniunctio: the volatile is caught and fixed.
The musical fugues
The most original aspect of the book is its fifty fugues. Each fugue is written for three voices, and the three voices have precise names linked to the myth:
- Atalanta fleeing: the voice that runs ahead.
- Hippomenes pursuing: the voice that follows her, imitating her.
- The lingering apple: a slower melody that remains as a stable foundation.
The musical form of the fugue, in which one voice imitates and chases another, lends itself perfectly to representing the pursuit in the myth. The sung text is the Latin epigram of the corresponding emblem.
Why music
Maier believed that music, with its proportions and harmonies, reflected the order of the cosmos, according to an idea going back to the Pythagoreans. Listening to the fugues while contemplating the images was meant to help the reader «feel» the correspondences, not merely understand them. It was a way of involving the whole person in study.
How to approach Atalanta today
The book lends itself to slow, multisensory study.
- One emblem at a time: read the motto, observe the engraving, then the epigram.
- Listen to the fugue: modern performances exist, and even just following its structure on a score helps you grasp its logic.
- Read the discourse last: once you have formed your own idea, compare it with the author's.
- Look up the myth: many emblems refer to classical stories that are worth rereading.
This approach reflects the spirit of the work: not a manual to consult, but an experience to pass through with the eyes, the mind and the ear.
In short
- Michael Maier's Atalanta fugiens was published in Oppenheim in 1617.
- It consists of fifty emblems, each with motto, engraving, epigram, fugue and discourse.
- The myth of Atalanta and Hippomenes represents the union of the volatile and fixed principles.
- The three-voice fugues join music and alchemy in a single experience of study.
