Expert: Maria - 6/29/2008

Question
Hi Maria,

I hope you are well and I'm thankful that there are experts such as yourself providing knowledge to the masses. I am hoping you will be able to provide me with a Latin and Greek translation of the phrase hearts of dragons. I know you need the context that the phrase is meant in so I will do my best to explain. The phrase is going to be used for the name of a group of people and needs to mean that they have the qualities/characteristics/spirit of dragons much in the same way the phrase "he has the heart of a lion" is used.

The closest I came to the phrase was Animus Draconis though I highly doubt I am right as I have no knowledge of Latin and I am even more confused about Greek.

I would appreciate any light that you could shed on this.
Thanks

Answer
Hello,

If you want a correct literal  translation of “hearts of dragons”, you should say  “Draconea corda”, where CORDA (nominative neuter plural of COR, 3rd.declension)  corresponds to “hearts” and DRACONEA ( nominative neuter  plural of the adjective DRACONEUS, agreed with CORDA ) corresponds to ‘of dragons”, as Latin in this case prefers to use the adjective instead of the noun DRACO in the genitive plural DRACONUM.

As for ancient Greek, you can say “Drakónton kardίai” where DRAKONTON (genitive plural of  DRAKON, 3rd.declension) corresponds to “of dragons” and KARDIAI (nominative plural of the noun KARDIA, 1st.declension) matches “hearts”.
Note that “Drakonton kardiai” is the Latin transliteration of “Δρακόντων  καρδίαι “ (ancient Greek letters), that is the same words written in the Latin alphabet we use still today.

Best regards,
Maria