Non plus ultra
Non plus ultra (also nec plus ultra , Latin for “no more”, “not beyond”) is the Latin translation of the saying which, according to tradition, Heracles attached to the pillars of Heracles about the end of the world at the end of the Mark the Mediterranean Sea between Gibraltar and North Africa .
The motto and the two pillars can still be found in the city arms of the Spanish exclave Melilla .
Today the term is used in German colloquial language , but also in advertising , to denote something unsurpassable.
origin
An early reference to this saying can be found with the Greek poet Pindar in one of his odes, in which he sings of the winners of the Olympic , Istrian , Pythian and Nemean games . There he describes the difficulties that arise when trying to navigate the vast ocean beyond the pillars of Heracles . The passage is in verse 21 of the 3rd Nemean Ode.
Another explanation is the return to the book of Job , chapter 38, verse 11 EU , where God speaks to the ocean to show him his limits. Here is the version from the Latin Bible, the Vulgate :
- Usque huc venies et non procedes amplius
- et hic confringes tumentes fluctus tuos.
(German standard translation: "You should come this far and no further. This is where your proud waves should lie.")
It does not explain why the Latin Bible text says non ... amplius and not non plus ultra .
At the beginning of modern times, when it became clear that the pillars of Heracles did not mean the end of the habitable world, this was negated with the form " Plus Ultra ". This was the personal motto of Emperor Charles V and expressed the claim to universal rule.