Expert: Maria - 8/10/2006

Question
I have an old amber goblet with the following latin phrase:  

Animae  Crux   Anchora

From what others have told me, that literally translates to: SOULS CROSS ANCHOR.

However, what does it mean?  
the cup can be seen at this weblink:
http://www.vaselineglass.org/latin1.jpg
the crest or coat of arms:
http://www.vaselineglass.org/latincloseup.jpg
and a close of the wording:
http://www.vaselineglass.org/latin.jpg

Answer
Hello,

The motto “Animae Crux Anchora “ means literally: "The cross [is] the anchor of the soul".

In fact:

-ANIMAE (singular genitive case of the noun ANIMA, 1st.declension)  means “of the soul”.

-CRUX ( singular nominative case of this noun which belongs to the 3rd.declension) means “the cross” as the symbol of Christianity, which helps us to endure pain. It is the subject of the phrase.

-ANCHORA ( singular nominative case of this noun which belongs to the 1st. declension) means “the anchor” as a source of security. It is the Predicate Nominative of the phrase.

In this Latin motto, as well as in other mottoes, the present indicative 3rd.pers.sing. EST (‘is’ in English) has been omitted  as it was not necessary  for comprehension.  

Hope all is clear now.
Best regards,
Maria
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As for SOULS CROSS ANCHOR, this translation has no sense, as you can see, but I can understand why someone has made this mistake: he has considered ANIMAE as the nominative plural of the noun ANIMA. In fact ANIMAE can either be the nominative plural  of ANIMA or the genitive singular, but it is the context that helps us to understand the true meaning of the phrase.