Expert: Maria - 11/24/2011

Question
Hi! I'm really touched by a song called "Iter Impius", wich, for all I know, means "unholy road" or "wicked path". I understand very well the word Impius, cause it's very similar to "impio" in Spanish (wich is my mather toungue).
So, I'd love to know what really means Iter, and where does the word comes from.
Also, i'd like to know how it's translated to ancient greek, 'cause I really want to know about the origins of both words (Iter and Impius) and, as the album the song comes from, is about the myths of creation and human history on earth, it's important for me to picture how the old greeks would have wrote that expression.

Thanks in advice.

Answer
Hello,

First of all I have to tell you that the Latin title “Iter Impius” is wrong as the correct Latin expression is “Iter Impium” for the adjective must be IMPIUM (unholy/ impious)in the NEUTER form as it must agree with the Latin term ITER which is a NEUTER noun  meaning “journey”/”path” /”road”.

As for the ancient Greek translation of “Iter Impium”, here it is:

“ Ἀσεβὴς ὁδός ” (ancient Greek letters) transliterated as “Asebès hodós ” where the first term means “unholy”/ “impious”, while the second means “journey”/”path” /”road”.

Note that the noun ὁδός transliterated as "hodós" is a feminine noun and then the adjective
Ἀσεβὴς transliterated as "Asebès" is in the feminine agreed with the noun.

Both Latin and ancient Greek language, in fact, request that adjectives and nouns agree in case, number and gender.

Best regards,
Maria