Nutrix ejus terra est  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Nutrix ejus terra est[1] (The Earth is his Nurse) is the second emblem from the Atalanta Fugiens[2], a popular emblem book by Michael Maier, illustrated by Jean Théodore de Bry or Matthäus Merian.

A woman with the globe of the Earth around her body, nourishes an infant held in her left arm at her breast. With her right hand she gestures to the ground below, where a goat on the left suckles a child and a wolf on the right suckles two children.[3]

The accompanying text reads:

"Romulus hirta lupæ pressisse, sed ubera capræ

Iupiter, & factis, fertur, adesse fides:

Quid mirum tenera Sapientum viscera Prolis

Si ferimus Terram lacte nutrisse suo?

Parvula si tantas Heroas bestia pavit, Quantus,

cui Nutrix Terreus Orbis, erit?"

In English translation (translation by Joscelyn Godwin):

A she-wolf's udders nourished Romulus,

A she goat, Jupiter, so 'tis believed:

What wonder, if we say the tender CHILD

Of the PHILOSOPHERS is nursed by EARTH?

If poor beasts fed such Heroes, then HOW GREAT

Shall be the one NURSED by the GLOBE of EARTH?

See also

• Spherical Earth
• Mother Earth
• Alchemy in art and entertainment
• Emblemata
• Earth
• Nurse
• Pregnancy
• Human–animal breastfeeding