MovieChat Forums > Quo Vadis (1951) Discussion > Quo Vadis, Dominé? Poú Vadízeis, Thée? ...

Quo Vadis, Dominé? Poú Vadízeis, Thée? (or, Kýrie)


Just a wee bit of annoyance at the fact that no one bothers to use the proper set-off with a comma in direct address. Also, I find it interesting that in Greek the phrase still uses the root "vadis", leading me to suspect that the Latin word did indeed come from the Greek. The "Th" in Thée, by the way, is soft--"th" as in "thing" or "thought." God is pronounced THEH-eh. Kýrie is "Lord". Actually, I am using here the modern Greek veeta (always mispronounced beta), but in ancient Greek it is probable that the "b" which has a "v" sound in modern Greek may well have had the hard sound of "b" as in "boy" in ancient Greek.
I don't remember quite when the Romans started using Greek and when they switched over to Latin. When my late mother was alive and we saw the movie she grabbed onto the "vadis" as a Greek word immediately.
One more thing, which may or may not be of interest. I and Henryk Sienkiewicz, who wrote the original novel, share our birthday, which is May 5th. It is also the Holy Day of Saint Irene, which was my mother's name. In Greek culture we celebrate "name days".
Ah, well. I know none of this is a big--er--huge deal. I just thought I would share it with y'all. Maybe one or two persons may remember me once I've popped off. I just turned 60 this past May 5th. I don't know how much longer I'll live, but, hey, it would be nice to be remembered, even for the craziest of reasons.
I love the movie, by the way. It sent chills up and down my spine when I first saw it as a child. And--it still does.
Vadizo mazi Sou, Kyrie (I walk with You, Lord).

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But really, the Romans were never Greeks, and they always spoke Latin. Even today, Italian is just a more modern form of the ancient Latin language. The Romans only learned Greek, if they were educated enough, or if they went to Greece or some other Greek-speaking country in the eastern part of the empire. But I come from Sweden, and we celebrate name days too.

Yes, it's true! IMDB has reached Sweden!

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Actually, it's not that the Romans were adapting Greek words, but that both languages (and several other, unrelated languages like the German languages, the Celtic languages, Persian in Persia and Sanskrit in India) are all part of what is called the Indo-European group of languages. They have what are called "cognate words", because they come from the same root language. So it isn't surprising that two languages may have similar sounding words meaning the same thing. Only highly educated Romans knew any Greek.

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In Spanish the v often is pronouced with a "b" sound and I don't think anyone really knows why.

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