Atalanta Fugiens, Emblem 16: The Lion with Feathers and the Lion Without
Two lions fight on open ground among ruins and trees. One has great feathered wings and holds the other by the head. The second has none. Both have long tails that end in a tuft. This is the sixteenth emblem of Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens, and its motto reads: this lion has no feathers; the other has what he lacks.
The book was printed in 1617 at Oppenheim. It has fifty emblems, and each one joins an engraving, a Latin verse, a prose discourse and a fugue for three voices. The engravings are attributed to the workshop of Matthäus Merian. Maier, a physician at the court of Emperor Rudolf II, designed the book to be seen, read and sung.
The Motto
The Latin line gives a clear contrast. One lion is plain. The other carries feathers, which in this picture means wings. What one lacks, the other has.
Nothing in the line says the two are enemies. They are two halves of a single idea, shown at the moment they grapple.
The Lion in Alchemy
The lion was a favorite beast of alchemical writers. The "green lion" appears in many texts as a name for a powerful, raw substance that devours metals and is later transformed. A lion also stood for royal strength and for the sun.
Two lions in one picture suggest two qualities of the same force. The tradition often pairs them: one fixed to the earth, the other able to rise.
Fixed and Volatile
Alchemists spoke of the fixed and the volatile. The fixed stays in the fire and does not leave. The volatile rises as vapor and escapes. The Work, in this reading, was the art of joining them, so that what flies does not flee and what stays does not stagnate.
The winged lion is the volatile and the wingless one the fixed. In the engraving they are locked together. That is the whole drama: two opposites, wrestling until they become one.
The Winged Lion Elsewhere
A winged lion is an old symbol outside alchemy as well. It is the emblem of the Evangelist Mark and the sign of the city of Venice, where it still stands on a column in the Piazza San Marco. Winged beasts also appear in ancient Persian and Assyrian art.
Maier's lion belongs to this wider family. The wings give a heavy animal a power that is not its own, and that gap is the point of the emblem.
A Reading for Today
Most people recognize both lions in themselves. One part is grounded and reliable. Another is restless and wants to fly. They often feel like opponents.
The emblem does not ask one to defeat the other. The tradition says that a creature with both qualities is stronger than either alone. A person who can combine steadiness with imagination, patience with daring, has found the lion's meaning.
The Engraving
The engraving is full of motion. The winged lion has clamped its jaws and forepaws on the other, whose head turns away. Behind them, a ruined wall and a stand of trees frame the fight, as if the struggle were taking place in an abandoned garden.
Both tails curve upward and end in tufts. The two animals are shown with equal care, and neither looks beaten. The fight reads more like an embrace than a duel, and that is the image's quiet hint.
The feathers are the key detail. Wings on a lion are strange, and they remind the viewer that the picture is not about animals at all. It is about two kinds of force, and the bird's gift to the beast.
The Fugue
Each emblem in the book has its own music. The fugue is written for three voices, and each voice follows the one before it, which is where the name comes from: fuga means flight or pursuit. The title recalls Atalanta, who raced her suitors until Hippomenes dropped golden apples in her path.
Maier used the old tale as a frame for fifty riddles. Modern singers have recorded the pieces, so anyone can hear them while looking at the engraving.
Contemplating the Emblem
For those who wish to work with this image:
- Look at the two lions and decide which one you recognize as yourself.
- Ask what you lack that the other lion carries.
- Think of a time when two parts of you pulled in opposite directions.
- Ask what would happen if they stopped fighting and worked together.
Closing
Two lions, one with wings and one without, caught in a fierce embrace. Maier's emblem is a picture of balance reached through struggle. For the seeker, it offers a teaching worth keeping: what you lack may be standing in front of you, and the work is to let the two become one.
Related Esoteric Inquiries
- Atalanta Fugiens, Emblem 37: The Alchemical Ethiopia
- Atalanta Fugiens, Emblem 32: The Alchemical Coral
- Atalanta Fugiens, Emblem 26: The Tree of Life, Fruit of Human Wisdom
Lux Esoterica.
2026.
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