There was a previous post on the correspondence between Riemann surfaces and algebraic geometry. I want to ask a related but more detailed question. BACKGROUND: Engelbrekt gave an overview of how you start with a compact Riemann surfaces and map them into projective space http://mathoverflow.net/questions/2704/links-between-riemann-surfaces-and-algebraic-geometry/2849#2849 In the case of a genus 1 surface X there's a very explicit construction. Namely X can be realized as ℂ/L for a lattice L ≅ ℤxℤ. From here the Weierstrass p function and its derivative can be constructed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weierstrass%27s_elliptic_functions and these give you a map ℂ/L --> ℙ^2 via z |--> [p(z), p'(z), 1] which realizes X as a degree three curve in ℙ^2 QUESTION: Say now X is a compact Riemann surface of genus g > 1. As has been pointed out below I should restrict to say g = 1/2(d-1)(d-2) where d>3, because otherwise there is no hope to realize X as a nonsingular curve in ℙ^2. Is there 1) a complex manifold Y that is a covering space of X such that X ≅ Y/G where G is the covering group of Y over X 2) holomorphic functions f₁, f₂, f₃ from Y/G to ℂ∪∞ such that z |--> [f₁,(z), f₂(z), f₃(z)] realizes X as a projective variety of dimension 1 in ℙ^2? I'm told a good choice for Y would be the hyperbolic plane because then the 4g-gon representation of a genus g surface tiles the plane.