Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori is a line from the Roman lyrical poet
Horace's Odes. The line can be roughly translated into English as: "It is sweet
and glorious to die for one's country." Thanks to the poem by Wilfred Owen
incorporating the phrase, it is now often referred to as "the Old Lie"; see
below. 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.
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." A reasonable English translation would be: "It is sweet and
fitting to die for the homeland, but sweeter still to live for the homeland,
and sweetest yet to drink for the homeland. So, let us drink to the health
of the homeland." 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." It is
believed and illustrated by the original copy of the poem, 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" and pointed out, that
"It is sweeter and more fitting to live for one's country."
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. 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 die for our country" are
considered to be derived from Horace's, and were a frequently used Zionist
slogan in the earlier part of the Twentieth Century.
In Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel: A Story of the Buried Life after the
outbreak of World War I, when adolescent Eugene, encouraged by his teacher,
Margaret Leonard, devours stories of wartime courage, and fueled by these
stories, composes his own, to the ever-present literary-referenced
commentary by Wolfe. Karl Marlantes' novel Matterhorn: A
Novel of the Vietnam War features a mock-mass between Mellas and others, in
which the line is satirically quoted. The British rock band Kasabian posts the
quote at the end of the music video for their song, Empire.
The British rock band The Damned released a single named In Dulce Decorum
in 1987. American band Kamelot quotes the line in
the song "Memento Mori", from their seventh album, The Black Halo.
The British dark cabaret act The Tiger Lillies include a song called "Dulce et
Decorum Est" on the album "A Dream Turns Sour" from 2014. This is a reading of
the Wilfred Owen poem with music written by Martyn Jacques.
Use as a motto and inscription United Kingdom
In 1913, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori was inscribed on the wall of the
chapel of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
'Dulce et' is also inscribed on the Parish Roll of Honour for Devoran in
Cornwall, hanging in the Village Hall. United States
The phrase can be found at the front entrance to the Arlington Memorial
Amphitheater at the Arlington National Cemetery.
The phrase DULCE ET DECORUM EST PATRIA MORI is carved in the monument
commemorating the Battle of Wyoming known as the Wyoming Massacre, 3 July
1778, erected 3 July 1878. 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.
Cuba 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. Dominican Republic
The phrase is also inscribed in bronze letters above the arch of the Puerta del
Conde in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
New Zealand It is also found on the memorial archway
at the entrance of Otago Boys' High School, in Dunedin, New Zealand.
India Found on the inscription on the French
Monument in Shillong, India for the soldiers of the 26th Khasi Labour Corps
who sacrificed their lives for the King and Country during World War I.
Pakistan The 'dulce et....' is also written on a
plaque on the left wall of main entrance of the Patiala Block, King Edward
Medical University, Lahore, Pakistan. It is to commemorate the sacrifice given by
the students and graduates of the institution who gave their lives in
First World War fighting for the British Empire.
Canada 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 Sweden
It can be found inscribed on the outer wall of an old war fort within the
Friseboda nature reserve in Sweden. = Organizations=
"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" is the motto of the following
organizations: The Portuguese Army University
The Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne
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 154th promotion of the Royal
Military Academy of the Belgian Military.
The shorter phrase "Pro Patria" may or may be not related to the Horace quote:
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.
Pro Patria is the name of a neighborhood in Caracas, Venezuela.
References External links
Latin text of Horace's Ode Wilfred Owen's poem