9

I'm coming up with a title for a song, and I thought "I'm a human, I will be a god" or "I'm human, I will be God" was pretty sweet sounding, but translating it into a short Latin saying would make it even better. Since I remember the word order "homo sum" from the famous humanist motto, I wonder if adding "Deus ero" after a simple comma would be correct? I came to this quite simply via analogy, since "ero" is the first person future form of "to be".

Improve this question
0

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
9

That works fine. The Romans might have done it in a different order:

Homo sum, ero deus.

You could also say

Homo sum, deus futurus.

This would be roughly "I am a man [who] is to be a god."

Yet another way to do this would be

Homo sum, fiam deus.

Which means "I am a man, I will become a god."

By the way, there's a great story about the emperor Vespasian told by the historian Suetonius. After Julius Caesar died, Roman emperors were considered, to a greater or lesser degree, to become divine when they died, at which point people worshipped them as gods. Vespasian's last words, according to Suetonius, were, "Væ, puto deus fio," which means, "Alas, I think I am becoming a god."

Improve this answer
5
  • 2
    I'd say that ero deus means "I will be god" and fiam deus "I will become god". Choosing between these two is choosing emphasis between the process and the resulting state.
    – Joonas Ilmavirta ♦
    Commented May 24, 2016 at 4:26
  • 1
    Yes. I intended my answer to make that distinction clear but I see that it did a half-assed job of doing so. I've edited so it does a full-assed job.
    – Joel Derfner
    Commented May 24, 2016 at 4:28
  • 2
    Now that you put it that way, I wonder if an autem fits there, like Homo sum, ero autem deus (or deus autem ero). I'd also add that an important proportion of Latin speakers (i.e., most of them since the IV century AD) would have been horrified by the idea of a man claiming to be able to become God.
    – Rafael
    Commented May 24, 2016 at 4:43
  • 1
    @Rafael: Barbarians!
    – Cerberus ♦
    Commented May 24, 2016 at 9:00
  • 3
    I think that rhetorically autem is overkill. (Also verum would probably be a better way to say "but" in this circumstance—autem is usually used to change the subject or to resume an interrupted narrative.)
    – Joel Derfner
    Commented May 24, 2016 at 10:39

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.