NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM

The phrase '''Novus Ordo Seclorum''' (Latin for "New Order of the Ages") appears on the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States, first designed in 1782 and printed on the back of the American dollar bill since 1935. The phrase also appears on the coat of arms of the Yale School of Management, Yale University's business school. The phrase is often mistranslated as "New World Order," but the Latin for that phrase would be ''Novus Ordo Mundi.

Contents

Origin and meaning

Popular culture

Notes and references

External links

Origin and meaning

The phrase is taken from the fourth Eclogue of Virgil, which contains a passage (lines 5-8) that reads:
::''Ultima Cumaei venit iam carminis aetas;''
::''magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo.''
::''iam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna,''
::''iam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto.''
:"The last time of prophecy has come to the Cumaean Sibyl; a brand new great order of the ages is born; for now the Virgin and the age of Saturn have returned; now a new Child has been sent from the heavens."
The forms ''saecla'', ''saeclorum'' etc. were normal alternatives to the more common ''saec'u'la'' etc. throughout the history of Latin poetry and prose. The form ''saec'u'lorum'' is impossible in hexameter verse: the ''ae'' and ''o'' are long, the ''u'' short by position. For the medieval exchange between ''ae'', ''æ'' and ''e'', see Æ; ''medieval'' is another example.
Medieval Christians read Virgil's poem as a prophecy of the coming of Christ.
The word ''seclorum'' does not mean "secular", as one might assume, but is the genitive (possessive) plural form of the word ''saeculum'', meaning (in this context) generation, century, or age. ''Saeculum'' did come to mean "age, world" in late, Christian, Latin, and "secular" is derived from it, through ''secularis''. However, the adjective "secularis," meaning "worldly," is not equivalent to the nominative plural possessive "seclorum," meaning "of the ages."^[1]
Thus the motto Novus Ordo Seclorum can be translated as "A new order of the ages." It was proposed by Charles Thomson, the Latin expert who was involved in the design of the Great Seal of the United States, to signify "the beginning of the new American Era" as of the date of the Declaration of Independence.

Popular culture

''Novus Ordo Seclorum'' is also the name of a high quality encryption program in ''Cryptonomicon'', a novel by Neal Stephenson. The name is said to be a pun based on the fact that the program puts data in a "new order" that cannot be unscrambled for "ages".
It was also referred to in Dan Brown's book ''Angels and Demons'' when the hero (Robert Langdon), a scholarly expert on the Illuminati, was trying to convince a skeptical character of the reality of the secret organization's power by pointing to supposed Illuminati symbology on United States currency. The scholar mistranslates the phrase to "New Secular Order", with no indication that it is a mistranslation in the story.
''Novus Ordo Seclorum'' is the name of an economic terrorist organization in Robison Wells' novels ''Wake Me When It's Over'' and ''The Counterfeit''.
The motto was one of the backmasked phrases in the Styx song Heavy Metal Poisoning from the album Kilroy Was Here.
''Novus Ordo Seclorum'' is also a song by Agathodaimon from the album ''Higher Art of Rebellion''.
''Novus Ordo Seclorum'' can be found in the lyrics of the Megadeth song "''Washington Is Next''" off of their album United Abominations.
It was also featured on episode "Triangle" of ''American Gothic'' where the character Caleb tapes a lot of these pyramids on the wall and chants "Novus Ordus Seclorum" and becomes demonic.
"Novus Ordo Seclorum" can also be found on a t-shirt from the band Ween.
Anime TV series "''Le Chevalier D'Eon''" features references to "Novus Ordo Seclorum".

Notes and references

1. Lewis and Short, ''A Latin Dictionary: Founded on Andrews' Edition of Freund's Latin Dictionary: Revised, Enlarged, and in Great Part Rewritten by Charlton T. Lewis, Ph.D. and Charles Short, LL.D''. The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1879, ''s. vv.''

External links

★ Great Seal Mottoes - Novus Ordo Seclorum