Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori

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Detail of the inscription over the rear entrance to Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. The inscription reads: "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori". Memorial Amphitheater - rear pediment - Arlington National Cemetery - 2011.JPG
Detail of the inscription over the rear entrance to Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. The inscription reads: "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori".

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori [lower-alpha 1] is a line from the Odes (III.2.13) by the Roman lyric poet Horace. The line translates: "It is sweet and proper to die for one's country." The Latin word patria (homeland), literally meaning the country of one's fathers (in Latin, patres) or ancestors, is the source of the French word for a country, patrie, and of the English word "patriot" (one who loves their country).

Contents

Horace's line was quoted in the title of a poem by Wilfred Owen, "Dulce et Decorum est", published in 1921, describing soldiers' horrific experiences in World War I. Owen's poem, which calls Horace's line "the old Lie", essentially ended the line's straightforward uncritical use.

Context

The poem from which the line comes, exhorts Roman citizens to develop martial prowess such that the enemies of Rome, in particular the Parthians, will be too terrified to resist the Romans. In John Conington's translation, the relevant passage reads:

Angustam amice pauperiem pati
robustus acri militia puer
condiscat et Parthos ferocis
vexet eques metuendus hasta
vitamque sub divo et trepidis agat
in rebus. Illum ex moenibus hosticis
matrona bellantis tyranni
prospiciens et adulta virgo
suspiret, eheu, ne rudis agminum
sponsus lacessat regius asperum
tactu leonem, quem cruenta
per medias rapit ira caedes.
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori:
mors et fugacem persequitur virum
nec parcit inbellis iuventae
poplitibus timidove tergo.
[1]

To suffer hardness with good cheer,
In sternest school of warfare bred,
Our youth should learn; let steed and spear
Make him one day the Parthian's dread;
Cold skies, keen perils, brace his life.
Methinks I see from rampired town
Some battling tyrant's matron wife,
Some maiden, look in terror down,—
“Ah, my dear lord, untrain'd in war!
O tempt not the infuriate mood
Of that fell lion I see! from far
He plunges through a tide of blood!”
What joy, for fatherland to die!
Death's darts e'en flying feet o'ertake,
Nor spare a recreant chivalry,
A back that cowers, or loins that quake. [2]

A humorous elaboration of the original line was used as a toast in the 19th century: "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, sed dulcius pro patria vivere, et dulcissimum pro patria bibere. Ergo, bibamus pro salute patriae." A reasonable English translation would be: "It is sweet and fitting to die for the homeland, but sweeter still to live for the homeland, and sweetest yet to drink for the homeland. So, let us drink to the health of the homeland."

Uses in art and literature

Dulce et Decorum est

...
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer,
Bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,–
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori. [3]

Wilfred Owen

Use as a motto and inscription

Plaque at the war memorial in Graceville, Queensland, Australia Graceville War Memorial 05.jpg
Plaque at the war memorial in Graceville, Queensland, Australia
Australia
The phrase appears prominently on a plaque at AMA House, Sydney commemorating fallen members of the New South Wales branch of the British Medical Association.
The phrase can be found at the Graceville War Memorial, Graceville, Queensland.
Brazil
The phrase can be found at the Monument to the Expeditionary (Monumento ao Expedicionário) in Alegrete city, state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Plaque at Queen's Park in Toronto dedicated to the militia that put down the North-West Rebellion QueensParkTorontoNorthwestRebellion.jpg
Plaque at Queen's Park in Toronto dedicated to the militia that put down the North-West Rebellion
Canada
Queen's Park in Toronto includes a monument to the militia members who died putting down the North-West Rebellion with the phrase.
The phrase appears on a bronze plaque bearing the names of Canadian soldiers lost from the city of Calgary during World War I and World War II at Central Memorial High School's front entrance. [11]
The phrase is found on the Great War cenotaph in Phoenix, British Columbia [12]
Cuba
The phrase was prominently inscribed in a large bronze tablet commemorating Cuban patriot Calixto García, Major-General of the Spanish–American War. The tablet was erected by the Freemasons where he died at the Raleigh Hotel in Washington, D.C. Today, this tablet resides at the private residence of one of García's direct descendants.
Dominican Republic
The phrase is inscribed in bronze letters above the arch of the Puerta del Conde in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
India
Found on the inscription on the French Monument in Shillong, Meghalaya for the soldiers of the 26th Khasi Labour Corps who died during World War I (1917–1918).
The inscription is also seen on the rear-quarter of the Memorial Tablet in the front garden of St Joseph's Boys' High School, Bangalore in memory of the Old Boys of the school who died in the Great War (1914–1918). A statue of St Joseph with Infant Jesus now stands upon the tablet.
Italy
The verse is engraved in each medallion in the center of the crosses of Aquileia's Cemetery of the Heroes, dedicated to every soldier who died during the First World War. This is the place from which, in October 1921, the Unknown Soldier departed in the direction of the Altare della Patria in Rome.
Nepal
The phrase was the national motto of Nepal from 1932 to 1962 along with Janani Janmabhumishcha Swargadapi Gariyasi, before being removed, and completely replaced by the latter.
New Zealand
The phrase is found on the memorial archway at the entrance of Otago Boys' High School in Dunedin.
Pakistan
The phrase is written on a plaque on the left wall of main entrance of the Patiala Block, King Edward Medical University, Lahore. It commemorates the students and graduates of the institution who died in the First World War.
Spain
The phrase is scribed on the tomb of Major William Martin, a fictional Royal Marine officer whose death was concocted as part of Operation Mincemeat, in the cemetery of Nuestra Señora in Huelva.
Sweden
The phrase can be found inscribed on the outer wall of an old war fort within the Friseboda nature reserve in Sweden.
St George, Queen Square - Wall monument - geograph.org.uk - 3297777.jpg
St Leonard, Shoreditch High Street, Shoreditch - Wall monument - geograph.org.uk - 2624958.jpg
Boer War memorials at St George the Martyr, Holborn (top) and St Leonard's, Shoreditch (above)
United Kingdom
The phrase was inscribed on the wall of the chapel of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1913. [13]
It is inscribed on the Parish Roll of Honour for Devoran in Cornwall, hanging in the Village Hall. [14]
It is also inscribed on Second Boer War memorial tablets in three London churches: St George the Martyr, Holborn; St John the Evangelist, Upper Holloway; and St Leonard's, Shoreditch.
United States
The phrase can be found at the front entrance to the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater at the Arlington National Cemetery, which was constructed from 1915 to 1920 – just before Owen's poem was published.
The phrase is carved in the monument commemorating the Battle of Wyoming (Pennsylvania), also known as the Wyoming Massacre, 3 July 1778, erected 3 July 1878.
The phrase is located on the second monument of the Point Lookout Confederate Cemetery in Point Lookout, Maryland, and at the Confederate Cemetery in the Manassas National Battlefield Park.
The phrase can be found inscribed on the Civil War Monument at Millersville University in Millersville, Pennsylvania, erected in 1872.

Organizations

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori is the motto of the following organizations:

The shorter phrase Pro Patria ("for the homeland") may or may be not related to the Horace quote:

See also

It is also used as the motto of the U.S.Army 371st Colored regiment of South Carolina. Affixed to a bronze coin produced by Henri Teterger.

Notes

  1. Ecclesiastical Latin pronunciation: [ˈd̪ʊɫ̪.keːɛt̪d̪ɛˈkoː.rʊ̃ˑɛst̪proːˈpa.t̪ri.aːˈmoː.riː] Latin: [ˈd̪ul̠ʲ.t͡ʃɛɛt̪d̪ɛˈkɔː.rumɛst̪prɔˈpaː.t̪ri.aˈmɔː.ri]

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