Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori is a line from the Roman lyrical poet Horace's Odes (III.2.13). The line can be roughly translated into English as: "It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country."

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 them. In John Conington's translation, the relevant passage reads:

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.^[1]

Usage

The line has been commonplace in modern times throughout Europe. It was quoted by Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, immediately before his beheading on Tower Hill, London, in 1747. It was much quoted in reference to the British Empire in the 19th century, particularly during the Boer War. Wilfred Owen used it satirically in his poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" which was written during World War I. (Owen was killed in action one week before the war ended in 1918.) In WW2 Glyndwr Michael was buried under the gravestone bearing his post mortem alias: William Martin Dulce et Decorum est pro Patria Mori.

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" In English this is rendered as: "It is sweet and right to die for the homeland, but it is sweeter to live for the homeland, and the sweetest to drink for it. Therefore, let us drink to the health of the homeland."^[2]

Uses in art and literature

• Perhaps the most famous modern use of the phrase is as the title of a poem, "Dulce Et Decorum Est", by British poet Wilfred Owen during World War I. Owen's poem describes a gas attack during World War I and is one of his many anti-war poems that were not published until after the war ended. In the final lines of the poem, the Horatian phrase is described as "the old lie."^[3] It is believed^{[by whom?]} that Owen intended to dedicate the poem ironically to Jessie Pope, a popular writer who glorified the war and recruited "laddies" who "longed to charge and shoot" in simplistically patriotic poems like "The Call."
• "Died some, pro patria, non 'dulce' non 'et decor'..." from part IV of Ezra Pound's "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley", a damning indictment of World War I; "Daring as never before, wastage as never before."
• In a school essay German playwright Bertolt Brecht referred to the phrase as "Zweckpropaganda" (cheap propaganda for a specific cause) and pointed out, that "It is sweeter and more fitting to live for one's country.".^{[citation needed]}
• The title of Damon Knight's 1955 short story "Dulcie and Decorum" is an ironic play on the first three words of the phrase; the story is about computers that induce humans to kill themselves.
• The film Johnny Got His Gun ends with this saying, along with casualty statistics since World War I.
• In the film 'All Quiet on the Western Front' a teacher quotes this early on while talking to his class.
• In his book And No Birds Sang, chronicling his service in Italy with the Canadian army during the Second World War, Farley Mowat quotes Wilfred Owen's poem on the opening pages and addresses "the Old Lie" in the final section of the book.
• Tim O'Brien quotes the line in the book If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home.
• René Goscinny, in his comic book Asterix and the Big Fight uses the phrase in a lighter note, when one of the Roman Legionaries is being punished by his superior.
• The line is quoted at the end of the music video to the song "Empire" by Kasabian, which depicts the Charge of the Light Brigade.
• In Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, the Tarleton brothers are buried under a tombstone which bears the phrase.
• The last words attributed to the Israeli national hero Yosef Trumpeldor - "It is good to due for our country" (טוב למות בעד ארצמו) are considered to be derived from Horace's, and were a frequently used Zionist slogan in the earlier part of the Twentieth Century.
• Regina Spektor has a song called "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori"
• In Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward Angel after the outbreak of WWI, when adolescent Eugene, encouraged by his teacher, Margaret Leonard, devours stories of wartime courage (R. Brooke's "If I Should die..." and R. Hanky's A Student in Arms", and fueled by these stories, composes his own, to the ever-present literary-referenced commentary by Wolfe.
• Used in 10,000 Maniacs anti-war song, "The Latin One"
• Mentioned in the band Protest the Hero's song "Softer Targets Dig Softer Graves"
• Stiff Little Fingers released a song "Not What We Were (Pro Patria Mori)" on their 1995 album B'S, Live, Unplugged & Demos^[4]
• The third song on the 1979 album Days in Europa by The Skids is titled "Dulce Et Decorum Est (pro Patria Mori)"^[5]
• Mentioned in the Divine Comedy's "Drinking Song" (featured on the Promenade album).
• Pro Patria Mori were a Punk band formed in Wokingham in 1984, and are featured in the book Trapped In A Scene by Ian Glasper
• Skyclad, a British folk metal band, use the phrase in their song, "Jeopardy" from their fifth album, The Silent Whales of Lunar Sea

Use as a motto and inscription

The phrase can be found at the front entrance to the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater at the Arlington National Cemetery.
The phrase is located on the second monument of the Point Lookout Confederate Cemetery in Point Lookout, MD, and at the Confederate Cemetery in the Manassas National Battlefield Park.

The phrase was also prominently inscribed in a large bronze tablet commemorating Cuban patriot Calixto Garcia Iniguez, Major General of the Spanish-American War. The tablet was erected by the Masons where he died at the Raleigh Hotel in Washington, D.C. Today, this tablet resides at the private residence of one of Gen. García's direct descendants.

It is also found on the memorial archway at the entrance of Otago Boys' High School, in Dunedin, New Zealand.

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

• Used as an inscription on the French Monument in Shillong, India for the soldiers of the 26thKhasi Labour Corps who sacrificed their lives for the King and Country during World War I (1917–1918).
• The Portuguese Army University (Academia Militar) ([1] [2])
• The Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne (former motto)
• The 103rd Ground Reconnaissance Squadron of the Royal Netherlands Army
• The 10/27 Royal South Australian Regiment of the Royal Australian Infantry Corps adopted "Pro Patria" derived from the above line meaning "For One's Country" as their unit motto.
• The phrase "Pro Patria" is the motto of the Higgins or O'Huigan clan.
• "Pro Patria" is also the motto of the Sri Lanka Army as well as being inscribed on the collar insignia of the Royal Canadian Regiment.
• It appears on a bronze plaque bearing the names of Canadian soldiers lost from the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada during World War I and World War II at Central Memorial High School's front entrance

References

1. ^ The Odes and Carmen Saeculare of Horace, John Conington. trans. London. George Bell and Sons. 1882
2. ^ Ludwig Berg, "Pro fide et patria!", Böhlau, 1998, p.144.
3. ^ http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dulce-et-decorum-est/
4. ^ http://www.slf.com/liverecording.cfm,
5. ^ http://www.the-skids.co.uk/skids/?q=node/960

The 'dulce et....' is also written on a plaque on the left wall of main entrance of the Patiala Block, King Edward Medical University. It is to commemorate the sacrifice given by the students and graduates of this great institution who gave their lives in First World War fighting for the British Empire.

External links

• Latin text of Horace's Ode
• Wilfred Owen's poem