Athena born in a shower of gold by Michael Maier
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Athena born in a shower of gold
Atalanta Fugiens, Michael Maier (17h century). Glasgow University Library,
Dep. Special Collections.
- Zeus (center) sits on the ground holding a thunderbolt in his right hand as Athena (center top) emerges naked from his head.
- Hephaestus (left) moves away, having split Zeus' skull with his axe.
Minerva
«Minerva is usually represented with a helmet on her head, a spear in one hand and a shield in the other, and with the aegis on her breast.
This Goddess was the protectress of Heroes; Hercules and Ulysses felt it in all occasions.
The reason is because all of them are chemical Heroes, and this Goddess was of the same kind; that's why it was said that a shower of gold fell on Rhodes the day she was born. (...)
By "armed Minerva" the chemists mean usually their mercury.
When the Fable says that she was born from the brain of Jupiter due to a blow of axe given by Vulcan, it is the mercury which is being sublimed through concoction, which is made by fire, or Vulcan.
The Philosophers express themselves in the same sense of the Fable when they say that it is necessary to blow with the sword, the sabre, the knife, to take off the child from the womb of his mother.
It is as if they say: cook the work's matter to push it until the grade of perfection which it is susceptible of improvement.»
DICTIONNAIRE MYTHO-HERMETIQUE. Excepts from "Minerva". Dom Pernety (1787)
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