Expert: Maria - 8/5/2006

Question
I'm in the planning stages of a painting, and one of the major themes I want to incorporate is a Phoenix and the phrase "out of the ashes and into the sky" in Latin.  Looking through past questions, I've seen a few requests for "out of the ashes", but nothing that comes close to the complete phrase I'm looking for.  

A translation would be great, as well as if there are alternate translations.

Thank yoU!

Answer
Hello,

"out of the ashes and into the sky" is in English:
“Ex cineribus et ad caelum versus”.

In fact EX (a preposition which takes the ablative case) is ‘from’; CINERIBUS (ablative plural of the noun CINIS-CINERIS) is ‘the ashes’; ET is ‘and’; AD... VERSUS
(prepositions which take the accusative  case) mean‘into’; CAELUM (accusative) is ‘the sky’.

As for alternate translations, you could say:
-"Ex cineribus renatus ad caelum volo”, if ‘renatus’(risen again) refers to a male noun like ‘phoenix’ in Latin.

If on the contrary ‘risen again’ refers to a female noun or person, you must say:
“Ex cineribus renata ad caelum volo” which means the same as the previous phrase, i.e. “Risen again from the ashes I’m flying  into the sky”.
This because Latin is an inflected language where the adjectives/past participles must agree in gender, number and case with the noun they refer to.

Finally “Ex cineribus renatus volat phoenix ad caelum ” means “Risen again from the ashes phoenix is  flying  into the sky” as this phrase refers to the mythological bird called phoenix that lived  in Arabia, and,when it reached the end of its life (500 years), burned itself to ashes on a pyre, and rose alive from the ashes to live another period, so that it was used in literature as a symbol of death and resurrection.


Have a nice day.
Maria