{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1276",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 1276,
    "subject": "Latin Inscription",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-11-25T18:50:10+00:00",
    "last": "1998-11-25T18:50:10+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0021-0091@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Nigel Price",
        "address": "nigelprice1 at compuserve.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-11-25T18:50:10+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Latin Inscription",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Greetings, fellow Lupines...\n\nMantis comments..."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "Here's a Latin inscription that seems to be from a building facing\nroughly south or west, in the general Hyde Park area (or an alternate\nreality Hyde Park area):"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "IAM*REDIT*ET*VIRGO*REDEUNT*SATURNIA*REGNA"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "As you all know, I don't understand Latin.  After some study, this\nline looks to me to be something like \"Now [blank] and Virgin they\nreturn the reign of Juno.\""
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "But \"redit\" can mean \"the matter comes up again,\" making the line\n\"Now the matter comes up again and the Girl/Maiden they return to the\nthrone of Juno\" (Girl Power! <g>)."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "If this inscription is real, I'd like to know about the\nbuilding/monument it adorns.  In any event, I encourage those who\nknow Latin to tell me what it says!"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "OK, I'm new to the list, so I've no idea what might be the connection\nbetween all this and Gene Wolfe, but the inscription is taken from Virgil's\nfourth Eclogue and means:\n\n        \"Now the Virgin returns; now Saturn is king again\"\n\nThe Virgin in the quotation is probably Astraea, the goddess of justice who\nfled from the earth to the heavens (where she became the constellation\nVirgo) at the end of the Golden Age, which was of course ruled over by\nSaturn.\n\nLots of argument about the exact interpretation of this eclogue, and the\nmysterious baby whose birth is supposed to bring the return of the Golden\nAge, but the general consensus is that it is a prophecy of a coming age of\nprosperity for the Roman Emperor under the rule of an Augustinian\noffspring.\n\nMediaeval scholars interpreted the whole thing as a prophecy of the coming\nof Christ, who was of course born during the reign of Augustus.  This led\nto a bizarre belief amongst some that Virgil was a sort of paraChristian\nprophet, which in turn led to the common use of the Aeneid for sortilege -\npick a passage at random, and it somehow held the key to your future,\nprovided you could interpret it correctly.\n\nI'm still getting the measure of this group, but I hope to ask all sorts of\nLupine questions in due course.  Meanwhile, can anyone tell me more about\n\"Castle of the Otter\"?  For instance... How long is it?  How much\nexplanation of the BotNS does Wolfe give?  Is it in print?\n\nGood grief...  I've just looked at Mantis' message again...\n\nMantis, are you the author of the wonderful \"Lexicon Urthus\"?\n\nIf you are, then let me congratulate you, and tell you that your work has\nbeen a great source of joy and pleasure to me.\n\n(And even if you're not the author, I still think it's a great book!)\n\nNigel Price\nMinety, Wiltshire\nEngland"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}