The Atalanta Fugiens

Atalanta was the swiftest runner in all Greece, yet she lost her race to a suitor who carried three golden apples. In this masterpiece of Renaissance hermetic wisdom, the physician and philosopher Michael Maier reads that ancient myth as a secret map of the soul's transformation. Each of the book's fifty emblems joins a motto, a verse, an engraving, and a three-voiced musical fugue to trace the stages of the alchemical work: the first matter, the dark putrefaction, the whitening, the deepening fire, and at last the golden fruit. Originally written in ornate Latin for the courts of 1617, it has inspired seekers ever since, not as a recipe for literal gold but as a living language of inner change. This faithful modern-English edition makes Maier's meaning and beauty clear to today's readers, and an introduction, glossary, and reader's guide open the way. Part of The World Scriptures Library.