Rebis, ut Hermaphroditus, nascitur ex duobus montibus, Mercurii & Veneris
The King and the Queen as the central motif, with the Divine in a secondary part. From Atalanta Fugiens.
What is happening
Michael Maier, 1618 “Rebis, ut Hermaphroditus, nascitur ex duobus montibus, Mercurii & Veneris.”
Symbolica, 2026 Maier’s Latin, put into English here: The rebis, like a hermaphrodite, is born of two mountains, of Mercury and of Venus.
Michael Maier, 1618 “Rem geminam REBIS veteres dixere, quod uno
Corpore sit mas haec faeminaque, Androgyna.
Natus enim binis in montibus HERMAPHRODITUS
Dicitur, Hermeti quem tulit alma Venus.
Ancipitem sexum ne spernas, nam tibi Regem
Mas idem, mulierque una eademque dabit.”
Symbolica, 2026 Maier’s epigram, put into English here: The ancients called the twofold thing REBIS, because in one body it is male and female both, an Androgyne. For the one born on two mountains is called HERMAPHRODITUS, whom kindly Venus bore to Hermes. Do not despise the doubtful sex, for the same male, and the woman one and the same with him, will give you a King.
Key · 2 motifs
Tap a motif on the picture, or a line below. Its note opens under the line, with the reading its author gave it.
- Primary motif
- Secondary motifs · 1
The picture
Mercury and Venus embracing below, the two-headed body standing on the mountain above them. By eye
The reading
The picture read whole, in the archive's words, from the sources quoted on the marks. Read on, and the picture follows: the motif under discussion keeps its colour.
‘Rebis, ut Hermaphroditus, nascitur ex duobus montibus, Mercurii & Veneris’: the Rebis, like the hermaphrodite, is born of two mountains, of Mercury and of Venus. The two gods lie together on the lower slope and a two-headed figure stands on the summit above them.
‘Rem geminam REBIS veteres dixere’, the ancients called the twofold thing Rebis, ‘quod uno / Corpore sit mas haec faeminaque, Androgyna’, because in one body it is male and female both, an androgyne. The figure on the hilltop is that thing, and the archive's entry on the hermaphrodite stands on it.
‘Natus enim binis in montibus HERMAPHRODITUS / Dicitur’, for the one born on two mountains is called Hermaphroditus, ‘Hermeti quem tulit alma Venus’, whom kindly Venus bore to Hermes. The gods are drawn as lovers with the caduceus put down beside them, because the myth is the recipe: mercury and the metal of Venus, copper, joined, produce the double body. ‘Ancipitem sexum ne spernas’, do not despise the doubtful sex, ‘nam tibi Regem / Mas idem, mulierque una eademque dabit’, for the same male, and the woman one and the same with him, will give you a king.
Decoded: every motif is marked, and each mark carries the reading its author gave it, quoted from the text, or says that it is observed on the picture and not read. The reading above is the archive's own, made from those sources and no others.
The conjunction completed. One body, two heads, and the end of the argument between sun and moon.
In plain words On the hilltop stands a naked figure with two heads, a man's and a woman's, on one body. Maier gives it the alchemists' name, Rebis, the twofold thing, and says what it is: male and female in one body. It is born of the pair embracing below, and it will give the reader a king.
Michael Maier, 1618 “Rem geminam REBIS veteres dixere, quod uno / Corpore sit mas haec faeminaque, Androgyna.”
Symbolica Maier's Latin, put into English here: The ancients called the twofold thing REBIS, because in one body it is male and female both, an Androgyne.
God shown, or pointed at. Look for what stands where a face would be: a name in a cloud, a circle above the top of a diagram, a ring of verses, a sign over a head.
In plain words The lovers on the ground are Mercury, with his caduceus laid beside him, and Venus, with Cupid at her feet. The gods are the parents of the two-headed child above them, whose name is made of theirs: Hermes and Aphrodite. The mountains they lie on are the two mountains of the motto.
Michael Maier, 1618 “Natus enim binis in montibus HERMAPHRODITUS / Dicitur, Hermeti quem tulit alma Venus.”
Symbolica Maier's Latin, put into English here: For the one born on two mountains is called HERMAPHRODITUS, whom kindly Venus bore to Hermes.
Also carrying the King and the Queen
35 works carry it. The 6 where it is the central motif are here. The symbol.
Where the detail is the subject
This is in the picture without being what it is about. Below, one work that is about it.
In the same series
Portavit eum ventus in ventre suo
Nutrix ejus terra est
Vade ad mulierem lavantem pannos, tu fac similiter
Conjunge fratrem cum sorore & propina illis poculum amoris
Appone mulieri super mammas bufonem, ut ablactet eum, & moriatur mulier, sitque bufo grossus de lacte
Seminate aurum vestrum in terram albam foliatam
Record
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