adjective order in latin sentence

[Anonymous]

Hi, I'm an editor (English), and I am checking the proper order of adjectives in a Latin sentence: VAGA ROTUNDA CAECA EST FORTUNA IMPERATRIX MUNDI. Any help would be appreciated--including corrections not related to the questions. I believe the rest of the sentence doesn't have any problems, but my Latin is weak, and I could be wrong.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Cato]

The book answer--all else being equal--is that adjectives of quality are placed after the noun they modify, adjectives of quantity go before.

However, the placement of adjectives in Latin is more flexible than in English, and so their position can be used to create a rhetorical effect. For example, the opening words of a sentence are naturally emphasized, so having vaga at the front emphasizes the "roving" quality of Fortune. Since this is kind of the point of the phrase, I'd think you'd want this and the other adjectives to lead off.

Vaga - "roving" and caeca - "blind" are obvious qualities for "Fortune, empress of the world", but I'm not sure what you're after with rotunda - "round, spherical"...

 

[Iynx]

Do you mean to say "Fat, fickle, and blind is Fortune, the empress of the world" ?

 

[Andy]

Rather than fat or spherical, this implies that Fortune is wheel-like, or cyclical, and heavily echoes the theme of, for instance, the Carmina Burana I "O, Fortuna".

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, I'm hoping "rotunda" means "round" like a wheel, not "fat." Should I take that adjective out?

 

[Andy]

I wouldn't. In the Carmina Burana, 'rotunda' does not appear, instead 'rota'...

But I'm not too sure.

 

[QMF]

WORDS has rotunda as an imperative of the verb rotundo, -are, and a corresponding adjective rotundus, -a, -um...

Nor does it say "Late" or "rare."

The relation between "rota" and "rotunda" (etymologically, not in terms of "a wheel is round") is pretty clear to me...so I don't think you should take it out.

 

[Cato]

The "Wheel of Fortune" is a common enough metaphor, but I've always taken it to express the capriciousness of fortune (like an arrow spinning on a wheel, the direction changes constantly) rather than her shape. Citations at L&S are pretty much uniform that this word describes a shape, not a "wheel-like" action or purpose (e.g. no author seems to use it to mean to mean "spinning").

You might do better replacing it with volubilis if you really care, but it might be a minor point.

 

[Andy]

Indeed, volubilis does appear in the Carmina:

Sors immanis
et inanis,
rota tu volubilis,
status malus,
vana salus
semper dissolubilis

Translated:

Fate, inhuman
and void,
a winding wheel, you,
Unlucky situation,
Vain prosperity
Always able to slip away.