13 May 2010

For our Altars and our Hearths


Coming St., Charleston, S.C.

I love the meaning of this latin inscription and always wondered what made the home owner decide to have it inscribed on his threshold. Every once and awhile I kick the weeds aside to pay it a visit.
Pro Aris et Focis is a Latin phrase used as the motto of many families and military regiments, as well as being one of the mottoes of Bristol University.

Meaning "For god and country" or literally "for our altars and our hearths", but is used by ancient authors to express attachment to all that was most dear and venerable. It could be more idiomatically translated "for our homes".
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Nice, eh?

2 comments:

  1. Nice find. I love it.

    In a former home in a former life, I had line from a couple favorite quotations stenciled on the walls. This was years before "writing on walls" was chic.

    It was in that same home that that former life started to unravel. On one of the windows, I inscribed this part of the poem "The Home" by Edgar Guest:

    Write it down, when I have perished:
    Here is everything I've cherished;
    That these walls should glow with beauty
    Spurred my lagging soul to duty;
    That there should be gladness here
    Kept me toiling, year by year.
    Every word and every act
    Were to keep this home intact.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Denise - I love that! Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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