What does 'et in arcardia ego' mean? Why is it controversial?

Question

It doesn't make a lot of sense to me but I would like to know why it has produced controvery amongst classical scholars?

Answer 1

It translates as an unfinished sentence 'And in Arcadia I..' an anagram of 'I! Tego arcana Dei' or 'Begone! I conceal the secrets of God'. The phrase appears in Renaissance paintings like Les bergers d'Arcadie. Its meant to refer to the Bloodline of the Merovingian kings - supposedly the direct descendants of Jesus through his wife Mary Magdalene.



But that's a conspiracy theory from Holy Blood, Holy Grail. And it turns out their Latin was a bit dodgy. Thrown in a few Knights Templar, the suppression of the Cathars, a sprinkling of the arcane and pinch of the unknowable and you've got a story good to nick and make into the Da Vinci code.



If you like this kind of stuff read Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco to see how its done right.

Answer 2

Et In Arcadia Ego Meaning

Answer 3

Good question, and one I have wondered about myself. I guess the controversy might have something to do with this (taken from Wikipedia):



While the phrase "et in Arcadia ego" is a nominal phrase with no finite verb, it is a perfectly acceptable construction in Latin. Pseudohistorians unaware of that aspect of Latin grammar have concluded that the sentence is incomplete, missing a verb, and speculated that it represents some esoteric message concealed in a (possibly anagrammatic) code. In The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln, under the false impression that "et in Arcadia ego" was not a proper Latin sentence, proposed that it is an anagram for I! Tego arcana Dei, which translates to "Begone! I keep God's secrets", suggesting that the tomb contains the remains of Jesus or another important Biblical figure.



Of course, whether you can trust Wikipedia is another story... Still, some interesting stuff if you are interested.

Answer 4

It means "I too was in Arcadia", but it's an odd way of saying it in Latin. It's the inscription on a tomb included in the corner of a number of pastoral paintings.



The simplest explanation is that it reminds the viewer that even in a scene representing an earthly paradise, death is always present.



In the 18th century, someone came up with a daft notion that Jesus had not died on the cross, married Mary Magdalen, moved to France and his children were the ancestors of the French kings. He probably got made a duke for that. His interpretation of the tomb was that Christ was buried in France. This nonsense was plagiarised wholesale to give us the Da Vinci code.

Answer 5

Despite its gentle appearance, Et In Arcadia Ego shows some clear signs of rampant psychedelia, partly emphasised by the use of constantly changing soundscapes. Law is sensed fine-tuning his compositions to maximise the impact of both the sonic environment and melody. This results in the album being strikingly consistent all the way through. The listener gets caught up in Law’s intricate sound formations and dragged deep beneath the surface to experience the full scale of his work. Yet, Et In Arcadia Ego remains candid and accessible all the way through

Answer 6

The title Et in Arcadia Ego literally means in Latin "And I am in Arcadia also." Arcadia was an actual place in Greece, but was used in mythology to refer to an imaginary idyllic place of beauty and harmony.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Et_in_Arcadia_ego



Great reading on the controversy and speculation of the piece:

http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/codex_morpheu/poussin.html

Answer 7

It's also the name of an album by The Village Orchestra.