Atalanta Fugiens · 1618 · Emblem XXXIX
Oedypus Sphynge superata et trucidato Lajo patre matrem ducit in uxorem.
Oedipus, having overcome the Sphinx and killed his father Laius, takes his mother as his wife.
Three centuries before Freud, Maier read the myth of Oedipus as an allegory of the work: the riddle solved, the old ruler removed, a return to the origin.
Which riddle have you been avoiding?
Michael Maier, Atalanta Fugiens (Oppenheim, 1618). Engraving in the public domain. Motto transcribed from the 1618 edition; translation and reading by The Hermetic School. All the emblems.