Per aspera ad astra
Per aspera ad astra, literally: “through the rough to the stars”, is a Latin expression ; it means: "Rough paths lead to the stars" or "Hardship leads to the stars".
This phrase has its origins in Seneca . It comes from his tragedy Hercules furens ( Hercules gone wild). There it says: “Non est ad astra mollis e terris via”, German “It is not a soft (= comfortable) way from the earth to the stars”.
Heinrich von Kleist mentions this saying in his drama Prince Friedrich von Homburg or the Battle of Fehrbellin on the standard of the Swedish army, which was captured by Friedrich II of Hesse-Homburg in the Battle of Fehrbellin on June 28, 1675 .
The phrase is on the coat of arms and the order of the Wendish Crown of Mecklenburg-Schwerin , on the Latvian three-star order and is among other things the motto of the United States Air Force Academy . ' Per ardua ad astra ' - "Through misery to the stars" - is related in meaning and is used, for example, by the Royal Air Force , as well as by the Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal New Zealand Air Force .
The saying can also be found on the flag of the US state of Kansas and under the coat of arms of the city of Gouda . The creators of the television series Star Trek borrowed the motto as the motto of Starfleet . In addition, the Göttingen Burschenschaft Brunsviga , the Halle Landsmannschaft Vitebergia , the Nuremberg Burschenschaft Pythagoras, the Braunschweiger Burschenschaft Alemannia , the Braunschweiger Burschenschaft Germania , the TWV Teutonia zu Rosenheim, the KDSt.V. Burgundia-Leipzig zu Düsseldorf in the CV and the Catholic-Austrian student union K.ö.St.V. Almgau Salzburg in the MKV , as well as the KaV Danubia Wien-Korneuburg in the ÖCV use the phrase as an election or motto. The University of Klagenfurt , California State University, East Bay and the Transnistrian Taras Shevchenko University also use the phrase as their motto.
Per aspera ad astra is also the emblem of the Prussian noble family von Wernsdorff .
In addition, the phrase can be found in the modified form “Ad Astra Per Aspera” on the plaque in memory of the burned crew of Apollo 1 at the launch pad on Cape Canaveral .
Works
A selection of works entitled Per aspera ad astra:
- March by Ernst Urbach
- Book title by Ernst Legal
- Frieze in 34 panels by Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach
- Stars of the Lid music album
literature
- Renzo Tosi: Dizionario delle sentenze latine e greche. Milan 1991, p. 749 f.
Individual evidence
- ↑ brunsviga.net - facts
- ↑ History - KDSt.V. Burgundia-Leipzig to Düsseldorf in the CV. In: www.burgundia-duesseldorf.de. Archived from the original on January 14, 2017 ; accessed on January 14, 2017 .
- ^ Genealogical pocket book of the knight and noble families , Volume 5, Brno 1880, p. 508.
- ↑ File: Pad 34 Ad Astra plaque.jpg