My icon... My mentor... My inspiration...

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A friend of mine wants to remember her dad by this phrase... in Latin. Rolling Eyes

Sadly enough my Latin is really dead. I hope you can help me out on this one.

Greetz,
Smyttie.

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Re: My icon... My mentor... My inspiration...

smyttie wrote:

A friend of mine wants to remember her dad by this phrase... in Latin.
Sadly enough my Latin is really dead. I hope you can help me out on this one.

Greetz,
Smyttie.

Here's some background:

"Icon" is also a Latin word (borrowed from the Greek). It means "image".

"Mentor" is also a Latin word. Well, actually it is the Latin spelling of a
Greek name. In mythology Mentor was entrusted by Odysseus with the
care of his son Telemachus when Odysseus sailed off to the Trojan War.

So you can imagine how the modern usage of these words came about.
Would they have had the same meaning in Roman times? I don't know.

"Inspiratio" in Classical Rome meant "breathing in", but in Later Latin, it
acquired the meaning of "inspiration" that we normally use.

Having said that:

Icon mea, Mentor meus, Inspiratio mea

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Cool George, thank you very much.

I also thought "icon" and "mentor" would be usable, but I couldn't find it confirmed anywhere on internet. Most of translation sites and books only refer to the really ancient Latin. Anyway, yours is the most litteral and "attractive" translation I found.

Other translations I found (require more imagination to translate) :

- Pater mihi exemplar,praeceptor,lux.
- Pater mihi auctor, comes, lux.
- Exemplar mihi, dux meus, inflammator animi mei.
- Pater mihi idea, praeceptor, vivificator.

Could you agree with any of those?

Greetz,
Smyttie

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smyttie wrote:

Cool George, thank you very much.

I also thought "icon" and "mentor" would be usable, but I couldn't find it confirmed anywhere on internet. Most of translation sites and books only refer to the really ancient Latin. Anyway, yours is the most litteral and "attractive" translation I found.

Other translations I found (require more imagination to translate) :

- Pater mihi exemplar,praeceptor,lux.
- Pater mihi auctor, comes, lux.
- Exemplar mihi, dux meus, inflammator animi mei.
- Pater mihi idea, praeceptor, vivificator.

Could you agree with any of those?

Greetz,
Smyttie

I like the first one very much.

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My icon... My mentor... My inspiration...

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