In “Death by Water” the narrator describes a man, Phlebas the Phoenician, who died by drowning. Eliot was probably inspired by the sequence of epigrams in the Palatine Anthology, «which are dedicated to drowned sailors and the like»1.

Death by Water

Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell
And the profit and loss.

A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool.

Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

Naufragium

Qui septimanas mortuus est duas,
Vocem larorum, Sidonius Phlebas,
Fluctusque jacturam profundi
Non pelagi meminit lucrumque.

Submersus omnem gurgite transiit
Aetatis horam, sub pelago fretum
Quod carne nudavit susurris,
Dum exoritur labiturque corpus. Dum cadit exoriturque corpus.

Ventum ad secundum cum adspicias ita
Clavumque flectas, respice tu Phlebam
Gentilis aut Judaeus, olim
Qui fuit altus itemque pulcher.

v. 1, septimanas … duas, fourteen days (two weeks) are called a fortnight.

v. 2, Sidonius Phlebas, although a historical record of the name Phlebas (from φλέψ blood-vessel, vein or artery) cannot be found in antiquity, «the formation by adding the suffix -as is regular enough»2.

vv. 3-4, Fluctusque – lucrumque, Phlebas forgot (non meminit) many things: «the cry of gulls» (vocem larorum), «and the deep sea swell» (fluctusque … profundi … pelagi), «and the profit and loss» (jacturam … lucrumque). My translation is more tangled than I wanted, but I couldn’t find a better phrasing.

vv. 5-8, Submersus … gurgite, overwhelmed by the whirlpool.
omnem – horam, he passed every moment (hour) of life. Apparently, Horace never used the -ii form of the perfect, so transiit is a blue-pencil error.
sub – susurris, (the body) that a current under sea deprived of flesh with whispers.
dum – corpus, while the body rises and falls.

v. 9, Ventum ad secundum, windward is the wind side, the side turned to the favourable wind.

v. 10, Clavumque flectas, clavus can mean the handle of the tiller.

Abdul (al-)Hazred, the author of the Necronomicon, wrote the so called unexplainable couplet, which goes as follows:

That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.

The above couplet could be a veiled reference to the cult of the Great Old Ones1. According to the Nameless City narrator, (al-)Hazred dreamed of the Nameless City the night before he sang the “unexplainable couplet”2. It has been translated many times3, even in Latin and Ancient Greek.

The only translation into Latin verses4 was made, as far as I know, by a certain Deinolithos5:

Illud nōn moritur quod polleat usque morārī:
Temporibus mīrīs, Mors, potes ipsa morī.

The meter (an elegiac distich) scans perfectly and I like the parallel between morārī and morī. However, I'm not convinced by the phrase «quod polleat usque morārī», because polleō can be followed by a substantive clause, but it's only the participle pollēns that is followed by an infinitive.

Therefore, I wrote my own version of the couplet, trying to be as literal as possible:

Quod recubāre potest aeternum haud occidit illud,
Insolitīs aevīs Mors licet intereat.

Nyarlathotep

Nyarlathotep is one of the Outer Gods, a fictional character created by H.P. Lovecraft. Also known as The Crawling Chaos, he made his first appearance in the short story “Nyarlathotep” (1920).

I decided to translate it for LLPSI server’s Halloween event and I thought about rendering the name in Latin too. I’ll leave it up to you decide whether it’s a good decision or not.

Is Nyarlathotep an Egyptian name?

«The name Nyarlathotep, like that of Abdul Alhazred, is etymologically false for the culture from which it is supposed to originate, yet close enough in aspects to invoke them»1.

Whether Lovecraft took inspiration from Lord Dunsany’s creations (Alhireth-Hotep and Mynarthitep) or from historical figures (Ptahhotep and Imhotep) is unclear.

In a faux scholarly essay2 the author, William Hamblin, says that the name Nyarlathotep is a contraction of the Egyptian phrase “ny har rut hotep”, meaning “there is no peace (safety, rest) at the gate”. Then he adds that «the significance of this title is apparently that Nyarlathotep, in his role as messenger of the Other Gods, is the “gateway” between the planes, and specifically between their dimensions and ours». I’ll omit his translation of the name into Ancient Greek because it is utterly ridiculous.

In the song “Nyarlathotep” by the metal band “The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets” the lyrics are claimed to be in Middle Egyptian, but I am not able to judge their quality. The authors of the lyrics apparently followed the faux essay and transliterated Nyarlathotep into nj-ḥr-rwt-ḥtp3 (literally “There is no at the gate peace”).

sbḥy r rwt tꜣ dšrt
jw jj.n z n(j) kkw
m štꜣww ḏww znfw

rḫ.n.f pꜣ nswt km
bꜣk n nṯrj šzp nn ḥr.f
rḏj.n.f (n.j) mḏꜣt n(j) mwt

nj-ḥr-rwt-ḥtp
zfṯ thmy^? bwtjw
nj-ḥr-rwt-ḥtp
j

ḫrwyw ḥr nw ꜥrqw
jꜣtjw ḥr mt m ḫꜣswt nbwt
nbnb snḏw ḥnmnm r ẖrw

wpwtj n bwtjw
zb wꜣt n šwt ḥr njkw
nrw m pr ḫntj n(j) jꜣdw

Crying out from the Red Land
Came a man of darkness
With evil bloody secrets

He knew the Black Pharaoh
Servant to the Faceless Sphinx God
He gave me the book of the dead

Nyarlathotep
Slaughterer bringing nigh those who are detested
Nyarlathotep

Tumult and time bent
Mutilation and death in every land
Unleashing fear, creeping downward

Messenger to those who are detested
Prepare a way for the Void and the Evil Ones
Terror in the harem of pestilences

The word ḥtp

As a layman I’ve observed that the noun ḥtp (hotep, hetep), which usually means “peace”, “offerings/sacrifice” or “to be satisfied, at peace”, when used at the end of the word was transliterated in ancient greek with -ωθης.

Egyptian t was not transcribed as θ when the previous consonant was rendered as aspirated (Νεφώτης, Σοχώτης). Also the vocalisation was rendered as ου after m (Ἰμούθης)4.

Examples

• Amenhotep (Ỉmn-ḥtp “Amun is satisfied”): Ἀμενώθης

  • Peteamenhotep (Pȝ-dỉ-Ỉmn-ḥtp “He who has been given by Amun is satisfied”): Πετεαμενώθης

  • Senamenhotep (Tȝ-šr.t-n-Ỉmn-ḥtp “The daughter of Amun is satisfied”): Σεναμενώθης

• Imhotep (Ỉy-m-ḥtp “(the one) returning home safely”): Ἰμούθης

  • Harimhotep (Ḥr-Ỉy-m-ḥtp “Horus has come in peace”): Ἁριμούθης

  • Pachompaimhotep (*Pȝ-ʿẖm-pa-Ỉy-m- ḥtp “The eagle (of) the one of Imhotep”): Παχομπαιμούθης

  • Peteimhotep (Pȝ-dỉ-Ỉy-m-ḥtp “The one who has been given by Imhotep”): Πετειμούθης

  • Psenimhotep (Pȝ-šr-n-Ỉy-m-ḥtp “The son of Imhotep”): Ψενιμούθης

  • Psensenimhotep (Pȝ-šr-n-tȝ-šr.t-n-Ỉy-m-ḥtp “The son of the daughter of Imhotep”): Ψενσενιμούθης

  • Psentremimhotep (*Pȝ-šr-n-tȝ-rm.t-n- Ỉy-m-ḥtp “The son of the woman of Imhotep”): Ψεντρεμιμούθης

  • Senimhotep (Tȝ-šr.t-n-Ỉy-m-ḥtp “The daughter of Imhotep”): Σενιμούθης

  • Taimhotep (Ta-Ỉy-m-ḥtp “The one of Imhotep”): Ταιμούθης

  • Teteimhotep (Tȝ-dỉ-Ỉy-m-ḥtp “The one who has been given by Imhotep”): Τετειμούθης

  • Zmenimhotep (Ns-Ỉmn-Ỉy-m-ḥtp “He belongs to Amun-Imhotep”): Ζμενιμούθης

• Menthotep (Mnṱ-ḥtp “Montu is satisfied”): Μενθώτης

• Mouthotep (Mw.t-ḥtp “Mut is satisfied”): Μουθώτης

• Neferhotep (Nfr-ḥtp “The good one is satisfied”): Νεφώτης

  • Paneferhotep (Pa-Nfr-ḥtp “The one of Nephotes”): Πανεφώτης

  • Pachompeteneferhotep (*Pȝ-ʿẖm-pȝ-dỉ-Nfr-ḥtp “The eagle of He who has been given by the good one is satisfied”): Παχομπετενεφώτης

  • Peteneferhotep (Pȝ-dỉ-Nfr-ḥtp “He who has been given by the good one is satisfied”): Πετενεφώτης

  • Senneferhotep (Tȝ-šr.t-n-Nfr-ḥtp “The daughter of the good one is satisfied”): Σενεφώτης

  • Teteneferhotep (Tȝ-dỉ-nfr-ḥtp “She who has been given by the good one is satisfied”): Τετενεφώτης

• Sobekhotep (Sbk-ḥtp “Sobek is satisfied”): Σοχώτης

  • Petesobekhotep (Pȝ-dỉ-Sbk-ḥtp “He who has been given by Sobek is satisfied”): Πετεσοχώτης

Therefore my proposal is to translate nj-ḥr-rwt-ḥtp in Ancient Greek as Νιαῤῥουθώτης (Latin: Niarrhūthōtēs).

I had a hard time finding the news of the award. I did not receive any email and there were no updates on the website of the Certamen. I had to plumb the depths of the Miejskie Centrum Kultury website to find it.

W tym roku po raz szósty konkurs organizowany był w języku łacińskim. Na konkurs wpłynęło 9 zestawów. Jury w składzie: Marcin Loch (przewodniczący), Cecilie Koch, dr Catharina Ochman przyznało nagrodą w tej kategorii Stephano Victori z Włoch.

This year the competition was organized in Latin for the sixth time. 9 sets were submitted to the competition. The jury composed of: Marcin Loch (chairman), Cecilie Koch, Dr. Catharina Ochman awarded a prize in this category to Stefano Vittori from Italy.

Apparently only nine persons participated and, of course, Stefano won, so after all I am happy with the final result.

Today I just want to show one of the three poems I sent, because I think that it turned out well. It’s a translation in hexameters of Roy Batty’s iconic final words.

“Tears in rain” monologue

Quae non vos homines possetis credere vidi:
Naves ardentes procul Orionis ab armo,
Caeruleos radios portam ad Tanhuserianam
Per tenebras atras fulgere. Ut fletus in imbre,
Nam moriendi hora est, haec tempore cuncta peribunt.

1. Orionis armus: the exact translation for shoulder of Orion would be humerus Orionis. It’s not clear whether it is the right shoulder (Betelgeuse i.e. α Orionis) or the left one (Bellatrix i.e. γ Orionis).

2. Radii caerulei: C-beams according to fans are either cutter-beams or caesium-beams. I opted for the second one. For metrical reasons I used caeruleus instead of caesius.

3. Tanhuserianus: Tannhaüser was a German poet who lived in the Middle Ages. His name in Middle High German is Tanhûser, which in Latin becomes Tanhuserus. Again, for metrical reasons I invented the adjective Tanhuserianus.

Mors in spatio

To be thorough I’ve discovered1 that in the elegy Mors in spatio vv. 55-68 (F. Bandini 2000) there’s a section that recalls Batty’s monologue.

With this post I’ll try to outline some guidelines to do so. These people are oftentimes beginners, that’s why I’m writing in English.

One caveat: during the whole process remember to keep balance between linguistic purity and intelligibility.

Step 1. Do some preliminary research

Latin was spoken for centuries after it “died”, therefore it’s very likely that your name has already been translated into it. These are the resources that I recommend for this stage:

• Lexicon Nominum Virorum et Mulierum, written in latin by Karl Egger, is your go-to place if you need to find the latin translation of names from Italian, French, Spanish, English or German.

• If you can’t find your name in the lexicon, try the Wiktionary.

• If you’re Italian, I suggest you to look for the meaning of your surname in Origine e storia dei cognomi Italiani by Ettore Rossoni. If you’re not Italian, any dictionary of surnames in your language should do the trick.

• A great resource is the article The latinizations of the modern surname by Ingram Bywater, where you can find several insights on European surnames.

If you can’t find anything, don’t worry! It’s time to make an educated guess.

Step 2. Formulate your hypothesis

Latinization of names1 may be carried out this way: by adding a first or second declension suffix (-a or -us) to names ending with a consonant e.g. Abraham: Abrahamus, Jacob: Jacobus, Joseph: Josephus, Elisabeth: Elisabetha.

However there are some exceptions:

• Names ending with l, like Samuel and Joel, don’t change, because they’re modelled after Hannibal and Tanaquil, and are declined as third declension nouns.

• Names ending with -as, -on, -e are treated as greek names e.g. Andreas (first declension), Simon (third declension), Hagne and Irene (gen. -es; acc. -en).

Latinization of surnames is more difficult. In my opinion if a word has been used once, it can be used again, given that there are no better ones available. Latin surnames are not epicene, therefore if your name is female, decline the surname accordingly (add -a instead of -us). If your surname has a nobiliary particle, just translate it to de.

1. Add the appropriate case ending (vd. supra) or leave the surname “untouched” if it can already be declined e.g. Senghor: Senghor (third declension) or Senghorus, Watanabe: Vatanabeus (even Vatanabe is fine), Nakamura: Nacamura.

2. Write the surname in Latin as it sounds and add the appropriate case ending e.g. Hermann: Arminius, Shakespeare: Shacsperus2.

3. Give the surname a latin form (or a latinified greek form) based on the etymological meaning e.g. Holtzmann: Xylander, Schwarzerd: Melanchthon, Lovecraft: Eratosthenes, Berlusconi: Biluscus. This type of Latinization poses a great problem of intelligibility, therefore it should be limited to basic surnames with an evident meaning (like occupational and descriptive surnames) which can be easily retranslated in the original language, unless there’s an attested precedent.

About the suffix -ius

Romans, in particular the members of the upper classes, had three names: praenomen, nomen and cognomen. The most important one was the nomen, because it identified a person as a member of a gens. The nomen gentilicium came into being directly by stem augmentation3 i.e. adding -i- to a given name of a real or mythic head of the house before inflection e.g. Aquilus: Aquilius, Cassus: Cassius, Claudus: Claudius, Julus: Julius, Marcus: Marcius, Tullus: Tullius. The nomen in fact is an adjective: Julius mensis, gens Julia, sidus Julium.

During Renaissance it was a common practice for members of the res publica litterarum to Latinize their names4. Many added indiscriminately the suffix -ius trying to sound as Latin as possible. However as Springhetti rightly noted we’re not bound by the Roman convention on gentile names. He also added that the same Romans would not translate foreign gentile names by adding -ius e.g. Barcas not Barcius, Calvus not Calvius. Therefore in my opinion all instances of -ius should be changed into the simple -us, unless it’s an old patronym (or matronym) that cannot be reduced to the [genitive of the father’s name] + filius scheme.

For example there’s someone called Mark Johnson, whose father’s name is Peter. Let’s Latinize Johnson. If we don’t decline it as a third declension word (Johnson -onis), the suffix -son has to be cut because it doesn’t belong to Latin, thus Johnsonus or Johnsonius are excluded. Then John should be retranslated into Johannes, but since it’s neither Mark’s or Peter’s name, Johannes and Johannis f. are excluded. This leaves us with Johannius (Johannes + ius) or to be more precise, since it’s a biblical Greek name, Johannides (Johannes + ides). The downside of this system is that surnames like Di Giovanni, Johnson, Johns and Jones, Mac John, Fitzjohn, Hanson, Johanns, Johannsen et cetera get the same translation (less intelligibility). On the other hand it’s just the beauty of walking on common ground.

Italian surnames

• Surnames ending in -a should not be modified apart from ortographical adjustments e.g. Colonna: Columna, Mantegna: Mantinea, Spinola: Spinula.

• Surnames ending in -e can be easily reverted to the Latin original e.g. Gentile: Gentilis, Mercuriale: Mercurialis.

• For surnames ending in -i there are a couple of options. Old patronymics, that don’t represent the father’s name anymore, can’t be distinguished from gentile names. As I’ve written above, the best practice is to Latinize them by turning the vernacular -i into -ius. Otherwise you can turn them in notarial Latin de + [the plural ablative form of the surname] e.g. Alberti: Albertius or de Albertis. For other surnames just turn -i into -us.

• Final -o and -io can be simply changed respectively into -us and -ius e.g. Bembo: Bembus, Filelfo: Philelphus, Tasso: Tassus, Boccaccio: Boccatius, Masaccio: Masaccius.

Spanish and Portuguese surnames

• For surnames ending in -a same as above.

• For toponymical surnames with de one solution is to Latinize them by using the proper case after the preposition. The other is to use the adjectival form of the toponym e.g. De Castro: Castrensis, De Escobar: Scobarius, De Torres: Turrianus.

• Surnames ending in -es are declined as third declension nouns e.g. Morales, Vives, Valles.

• Surnames ending in -ez apparently were regularly Latinized by direct substitution of -ius for the final -ez. There are some exceptions like Alvarez: Alvarus.

French surnames

• They often need the change of a letter or two in the body of the word.

• For surnames ending in -ier the -i- usually disappeared in the Latin form e.g. Champier: Champerius, Chartier: Charterius, Dacier: Dacerius.

• Surnames ending in -on should be declined as third declension words.

• Final -é and -ée was changed respectively into -eus and -aeus e.g. Budé: Budeus, Finé: Fineus, Strebée: Strebaeus.

• Final -eau was changed into -aeus e.g. Brodeau: Brodaeus, Cotereau: Coteraeus.

Dutch, Flemish and German surnames

• They were often supplanted by pseudonyms.

• Final -e was changed into -ius, but it’s fine as it is.

• Final -s (old patronymic) was changed into -ius e.g. Rubens: Rubenius.

English surnames

• English surnames usually follow general rules.

• Surnames ending with -ee were sometimes Latinized by direct substitution of -ea for the final -ee e.g. Dee: Dea, Free: Frea.

• For old patronymics same as above. If you prefer intelligibility over classicalism Johnson -onis is a valid alternative, much better than the awful Johnsonius.

Other names and surnames

There are not many examples to draw general “rules” from.

Real patronymics and matronymics should be translated in Latin by the genitive of the parent’s name followed by filius or filia, as the Romans used to do.

For Slavic surnames ending in -ski/-cki/-dski one solution is to add -us e.g. Chmielnicki: Chmielnicius.

In the Arab world parents are sometimes addressed by their nickname: Abu or Um, which mean respectively father of and mother of, followed by the name of their elder son. This can be translated in Latin by the genitive of the son’s name followed by pater or mater. Sometimes the sound of Ibn (son) has been Latinized with Av- e.g. Ibn Sina: Avicenna, Ibn Rushd: Averroes.

Sometimes Chinese courtesy name zi has been Latinized with -ci- e.g. Kong Fuzi: Confucius, Mengzi: Mencius.

Step 3. Test your hypothesis

You have translated your name in Latin, but you don’t know if it is attested or not. My suggestion is to make a search in Google Books or in Vicipaedia. If you don’t find anything, you can ask for a second opinion in Latin groups online.

Leave a comment below to let me know what you think about this topic!

The idea for this post came to me after reading James Burton’s blog “Undead Author Society” where he presents his research concerning the fragments left by dead writers and poets and then reanimates the single stories. As far as I know his project halted in 2021 and I don’t know if he will keep writing these short stories in the future, but nevertheless I recommend you to give a look at his blog, because I enjoyed very much reading it. The project, as it currently stands, is entirely devoted to the exploration of Lovecraft’s Commonplace Book, which is, as the name suggests, a small book containing Lovecraft’s ideas for horror stories in the form of quotes and short phrases.

The first post in the series is about the first note of Lovecraft’s Commonplace Book.

Who is this Demophon who trembles under the sun as if it were cold?

James Burton thinks that the note is about Demophoon of Athens, son of Theseus and Phaedra, but unfortunately his «quick search on Wikipedia» led him astray. The myth of Demophoon is as follows according to Apollodorus (Epitomē XV.6.16). He was returning home from Troy, where he had fought with his brother Acamas to rescue their grandmother Aethra, and then he landed in Thrace and married Phyllis, the daughter of the King of Bisaltia. After a while he begged her to let him sail to Athens promising to return. Phyllis escorted him to Amphipolis (Ennea Hodoi) and gave him a chest containing something sacred to Rhea. She told him to open it when every hope to return to Thrace was lost. He never came back but settled in Cyprus instead. Phyllis after having waited for him in vain committed suicide. Then Demophoon opened the chest out of curiosity, went mad because of fear of what was inside and died falling from horse on his own sword. To be fair James Burton was fascinated by Demophoon’s madness and Rhea symbology, which fit the common Lovecraftian trope of going mad from experiencing something men are not meant to comprehend.

This myth inspired Ovid to compose the second letter of Hērōidēs. It’s very touching. For example here Phyllis asks herself if the tears of Demophoon were fake or real:

vv. 49-52

Crēdidimus blandīs, quōrum tibi cōpia, verbīs;
Crēdidimus generī nōminibusque tuīs;             
Crēdidimus lacrimīs—an et hae simulāre docentur?
Hae quoque habent artēs, quāque jubentur, eunt?

Coming back to the question of this post, I found a revealing passage from Thomas Moore’s prefatory letter on Irish music to the Marchioness Dowager of Donegal, which shows that the source of the quote about Demophon is Sextus Empiricus:

To those who identify nationality with treason, and who see, in every effort for Ireland, a system of hostility towards England, — to those too, who, nursed in the gloom of prejudice, are alarmed by the faintest gleam of liberality that threatens to disturb their darkness (like that Demophon of old, who, when the sun shone upon him, shivered!* [emphasis added]) — to such men I shall not deign to apologize for the warmth of any political sentiment which may occur in the course of these pages.

* This emblem of modern bigots was head-butler (τραπεζοποιός) to Alexander the Great. — Sext. Empir. Pyrrh. Hypoth. lib. I

Furthermore, we know that Lovecraft read Thomas Moore’s works and appreciated1 at least two poems: The Ring and Alciphron. Also from his note love of darkness means ignorance, therefore bigotry.

Sextus Empiricus was a Greek Pyrrhonist philosopher whose works are a major source of information about Pyrrhonism and other Hellenistic philosophies. In the fourteenth chapter of his Outlines of Pyrrhonism Sextus Empiricus says that there are ten “modes” that generate suspension of judgement. The second mode is based on the difference between human beings. As an example he talks about Demophon, the head-butler of Alexander, who used to shiver under the sun and in the bath, but felt warm in the shade.

Sextī Empiricī Pyrrhōniae Hypotyposēs I.14 dē secundō modō

καὶ Δημοφῶν μὲν ὁ Ἀλεξάνδρου τραπεζοποιὸς ἐν ἡλίῳ γενόμενος ἢ ἐν βαλανείῳ ἐρρίγου, ἐν σκιᾷ δὲ ἐθάλπετο.

et Dēmophōn quidem, quī Alexandrō mēnsae structor erat, quum ad sōlem stābat aut in balneō erat, algēbat, in umbrā autem calescēbat.

Here’s the answer.

Now the question is: what story would you write with this prompt?