Atalanta Fugiens · Emblem V

Appone mulieri super mammas bufonem, ut ablactet eum, et moriatur mulier, sitque bufo grossus de lacte.

Put a toad to the woman’s breast, so that she nurses it until she dies, and the toad grows fat on the milk.

Emblem V

A reading

One of the book’s darkest images. Something heavy and earthly is fed by what is refined until it has taken all of it. The work includes this exchange, and it is not pleasant.

A question to carry

What in your life is feeding on your best attention?

Emblem of the day

48 emblems, one each day

Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens (1618), with the Latin motto, a translation and a reading for each plate.

Engraving in the public domain.

Read Emblem V