The phrase Novus Ordo Seclorum (Latin for "New Order of the Ages") appears on the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States, first designed in 1782 and printed on the back of the American dollar bill since 1935. The phrase also appears on the coat of arms of the Yale School of Management, Yale University's business school. The phrase is often mistranslated as "New World Order," but the Latin for that phrase would be Novus Ordo Mundi.
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Origin and meaning
The phrase is taken from the fourth Eclogue of Virgil, which contains a passage (lines 5-8) that reads:
- Ultima Cumaei venit iam carminis aetas;
- magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo.
- iam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna,
- iam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto.
- "The last time of prophecy has come to the Cumaean Sibyl; a brand new great order of the ages is born; for now the Virgin and the age of Saturn have returned; now a new Child has been sent from the heavens."
The forms saecla, saeclorum etc. were normal alternatives to the more common saecula etc. throughout the history of Latin poetry and prose. The form saeculorum is impossible in hexameter verse: the ae and o are long, the u short by position. For the medieval exchange between ae, æ and e, see Æ; medieval is another example. Medieval Christians read Virgil's poem as a prophecy of the coming of Christ. The word seclorum does not mean "secular", as one might assume, but is the genitive (possessive) plural form of the word saeculum, meaning (in this context) generation, century, or age. Saeculum did come to mean "age, world" in late, Christian, Latin, and "secular" is derived from it, through secularis. However, the adjective "secularis," meaning "worldly," is not equivalent to the nominative plural possessive "seclorum," meaning "of the ages."[1] Thus the motto Novus Ordo Seclorum can be translated as "A new order of the ages." It was proposed by Charles Thomson, the Latin expert who was involved in the design of the Great Seal of the United States, to signify "the beginning of the new American Era" as of the date of the Declaration of Independence.
Popular culture
Novus Ordo Seclorum is also the name of a high quality encryption program in Cryptonomicon, a novel by Neal Stephenson. The name is said to be a pun based on the fact that the program puts data in a "new order" that cannot be unscrambled for "ages". It was also referred to in Dan Brown's book Angels and Demons when the hero (Robert Langdon), a scholarly expert on the Illuminati, was trying to convince a skeptical character of the reality of the secret organization's power by pointing to supposed Illuminati symbology on United States currency. The scholar mistranslates the phrase to "New Secular Order", with no indication that it is a mistranslation in the story. Novus Ordo Seclorum is the name of an economic terrorist organization in Robison Wells' novels Wake Me When It's Over and The Counterfeit. The motto was one of the backmasked phrases in the Styx song Heavy Metal Poisoning from the album Kilroy Was Here, is the title of a song by Agathodaimon from the album Higher Art of Rebellion, and can be found in the lyrics of the Megadeth song "Washington Is Next!" off of their album United Abominations. It was also featured on episode "Triangle" of American Gothic where the character Caleb tapes a lot of these pyramids on the wall and chants "Novus Ordus Seclorum" and becomes demonic, and can also be found on a t-shirt from the band Ween. The Anime TV series "Le Chevalier D'Eon" features references to "Novus Ordo Seclorum".
See also
Notes and references
- ^ Lewis and Short, A Latin Dictionary: Founded on Andrews' Edition of Freund's Latin Dictionary: Revised, Enlarged, and in Great Part Rewritten by Charlton T. Lewis, Ph.D. and Charles Short, LL.D. The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1879, s. vv.
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