Symbolica
Oedypus Sphynge superata & trucidato Lajo patre matrem ducit in uxorem

Oedypus Sphynge superata & trucidato Lajo patre matrem ducit in uxorem

The Demon and the Monster as the central motif, with Death and the Skull in a secondary part. From Atalanta Fugiens.

Matthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618. Engraving.

Public domain, 1618 printing · Web copy 1400 by 1148 px · Internet Archive, Getty Research Institute copy, leaf 172

What is happening

Michael Maier, 1618 “Oedypus Sphynge superata & trucidato Lajo patre matrem ducit in uxorem.” Atalanta Fugiens, Emblema XXXIX, page 165, the motto printed over the engraving.

Symbolica, 2026 Maier’s Latin, put into English here: Oedipus, the Sphinx beaten and Laius his father killed, takes his mother to wife.

Key · 2 motifs

The motifs the picture carries, filed by role. The marks on the picture itself come with the entry.

  1. 1The Demon and the Monstercentral motif as it reads here: Emblema XXXIX
  2. 2Death and the Skullsecondary motif

The picture

The sphinx on the rock at the upper left, the body of the father below, Oedipus among the crowd. By eye

Not yet decoded: the motifs are tagged by eye and the readings above are quoted from their sources. The marks on the picture and the sourced notes come with the entry.

Also carrying the Demon and the Monster

10 works carry it. The 3 where it is the central motif are here. The symbol.

Where the detail is the subject

Death and the Skull

This is in the picture without being what it is about. 6 works in the archive are about it; the 4 closest are below.

In the same series

Atalanta Fugiens, 1618

Record

Source
Internet Archive, Getty Research Institute copy, leaf 172
Rights
Public domain. The book was printed at Oppenheim in 1618 and its author, engraver, printer and publisher have been dead for more than three centuries; the Getty Research Institute's scan of it on the Internet Archive carries no further restriction.
Restoration
None. A 1400 by 1148 pixel web copy made from the source file; nothing retouched, nothing upscaled.
Series
Atalanta Fugiens, 1618
Artist
Matthaus Merian, engraver and publisher, 1593 to 1650, to whom the fifty plates of Atalanta Fugiens are attributed by tradition rather than by signature
Titled here
Oedypus Sphynge superata & trucidato Lajo patre matrem ducit in uxorem. Internet Archive catalogues it as: Emblema XXXIX, from Atalanta Fugiens, page 165
Checked
the Science History Institute's catalogue of the same 1618 Oppenheim printing, 4 September 2026: Maier as author, de Bry as publisher, Galler as printer, Merian as engraver, and Public Domain Mark. The engraving is attributed to Merian by tradition and is not signed. The image here is from the Getty Research Institute's scan of the same edition on the Internet Archive; the leaf is named in the source line. Not seen in the hand.
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One symbol a week, decoded.

This picture is free at full size from its source, linked above. What an address gets is the Sunday letter: one picture, one symbol marked on it, what it meant and who said so, and the master files of the decoded plates as they are verified. Leave any time.

Cite
Symbolica, “Oedypus Sphynge superata & trucidato Lajo patre matrem ducit in uxorem”, Matthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618. thesymbolica.com/work/oedypus-sphynge-superata-trucidato-lajo-patre-matrem-ducit-in-uxorem/