I’ve just come across a book of demonology which the author is calling ‘Stellas Daemonum’ which he imagines to mean ‘The Orders of the Daemons’.
To me it seems that ‘stellas’ can only be either a second person singular indicative active of an obscure verb ‘stello stellare’ or, it’s the accusative plural of stella, stellae.
I’ve consulted every dictionary I have including the Lewis & Short regarding this and it just confirms what I think.
Is there any way at all that ‘stellas’ can actually be a plural nominative? Maybe some quirky, obscure medieval usage?
At first I thought this might be a google translate sort of error, but google translate actually renders “ordines daemonum” which is certainly better. Whatever the source, it’s just wrong, and no, there is no way it could be a nominative plural.
I suspect he hates pretentious pseudo-intellectuals who write about his minions in detail, use Latin for a title to impress everyone but are too lazy and ignorant to get the most basic grammar right, even more.
Hi all, just to note in passing that e.g. the OCT title of Plato’s Republic on the dust jacket is in the accusative, Platonis Rempublicam. Check out the image here:
There it is situated in a sentence as an object (recognouit, instruxit). When the OCT gives the title outside the sentence context however (e.g. stamped on the cover), it’s in the nominative: Platonis Respublica.
Perhaps worth checking with the author whether some verb is implied? Maybe a mystical verb. Or maybe it’s a mistake.
Quite a few OCTs on my shelf follow this unfortunate pattern: “Sophoclis fabulae recognoverunt . . .” Oxonian Latinity is apparently not what it used to be, though we can give the benefit of the doubt to opera and orationes. Interestingly, OUP’s online cover image for Stefec’s edition of Philostratus’ VS reads “Flavii Philostrati vitae sophistarum recognovit . . . Stefec,” but my hard copy reads “vitas” (and continues “ad quas accedunt Polemonis Laodicensis declamationes quae exstant duae,” missing from the online cover).
I suspect he hates pretentious pseudo-intellectuals who write about his minions in detail, use Latin for a title to impress everyone but are too lazy and ignorant to get the most basic grammar right, even more.
