SYMBOLS - KING - ISIS AND OSIRIS - FIVE Engraving from Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens, hoc est, Emblemata Nova de Secretis Naturae Chymica, 1618. This is Emblem 44 in the series, and is a graphic play on the story of Isis, preserved in Egyptian mythology, of the slaying of Osiris by Set. Maier tells us that Typhon (one of the names of Set) has slain Osiris and scattered abroad his dismembered limbs. However, Osiris sister-wife has put the pieces back together. Osiris, int he form of a crowned King, is being lifted whole from the wooden coffin. It is only in the background that we can see his severed body, with Isis in distress. Maier seems to have adopted the old imagery to support the alchemical teaching that Mercury must die in order to give life to Sulphur. The reason why we cannot see the assassin (only his leg and arm are visible) is because he is incomplete or severed, like his victim. The number five - which in numerology is the pentagrammic number of the Whole Man - is emphasised in the main action of the picture: there are five windows and, and five standing men