Post by PetrushkaPost by EA BennettPost by PetrushkaPost by EA BennettAvete, omnes.
Perhaps "Liberate vosmet ex inferis" or as you suggest, "Libera temet
ex
Post by PetrushkaPost by EA Bennettinferis" "Inferis" implies the lowermost regions; "infernis" and
"infimis"
Post by PetrushkaPost by EA Bennettdo likewise. I've seen all three.
Ernestus
"libera temet ex inferis" is, IIRC, how I understood it at the time.
"inferi" is standard for "hell". The only qualm I have is over the use
of "ex" - "ab" (or "de", for mediaeval Latin) would sound better to my
ear.
Post by Petrushka--
Petrushka | Wellington, NZ
de_meun at yahoo dot com
For me "de inferis" conjures up an image of hell with a down
escalator.
Post by PetrushkaPost by EA BennettThis is more post-modern than medieval, Tartarean-Sartrean, so to speak.
More precisely, "ex" is "out of," "ab" is "away from," and "de" is down
"libera nos a malo."
vale
ROTFLOL. I was thinking of the phrase from the Requiem offertory text,
"Domine Jesu Christe, Rex gloriae, libera animas omnium fidelium
defunctorum de poenis inferni et de profundo lacu: libera eas de ore
leonis".
I wonder if that'd be a post-modern or a Sartrean lion.
But I like the image of the escalator much better!
Or maybe a series of subbasements. These prepostions show how unamenable
everyday language is to logical analysis. "De" and "super" (in the sense
of "about") are synonymous. In "De profundis" the preposition is "out of"
and we can only get out of the deeps by rising (unless we can get out also
by digging). This tendency toward the coalescence of opposites seems to be
even more pronounced in Latin than it is in English (cleave, sanction,
etc.), maybe because of the former's longer history. This may explain
couplets like "accerso,ere" and "arcesso,ere" if they are not merely the
result of sound transposition but rather are frequentative forms of
"acquiro" and "arceo" respectively. Their later confusion may have
reflected the fact that to be called into the presence of authority is to
be told simultaneously "come here" and "stay there."
Eduardus