Vocatus et invocatus deus aderit

"Vocatus et invocatus deus aderit" , also "vocatus atque non vocatus deus aderit" , (German "Called or not called, (a) God will be there") is a Latin proverb.

History and use

The sentence goes back to an oracle from the Temple of Apollo in Delphi . Before the Spartans started the war against Athens , to which they had already decided, they asked in Delphi “whether it would be better to wage war”. They received the answer, "For fighting in war to the best of his ability, victory will come and he himself, so the answer (of God), will intervene to help, whether called for or not."

The Latin version “Vocatus atque invocatus deus aderit” spread through the collection of proverbs Adagia by Erasmus of Rotterdam . There he traced the sentence back to “the oracle once given to the Lacedämonians and turned into a proverb ' καλούμενός τε κἄκλητος θεὸς παρέσται '” (“kalumenos te kakletos theos parestai”). He explains that the saying is used to “express that something, even if you do not ask for it and are not careful about it, will still happen whether you like it or not, e.g. B. Old age, death and punishment for wrongdoing. "

Of the examples of the use of the idiom in antiquity, a poem by Horace deserves attention , albeit with a clear deviation. Although all people are mortal, the rich man strives, as if this end did not exist for him, to increase his wealth. But Charon , the ferryman of Orcus , is incorruptible: "Here he defeats the proud Tantalus and the Tantalus clan, and here to redeem the poor, whose measure is full of toil, called or not called, he hears."

It is often pointed out that Carl Gustav Jung had this saying, which he discovered in his youth in the Adagia, posted above the doorstep of his house in Küsnacht . In a letter he stated that he wanted this to be understood as a reminder for himself and his patients that the beginning of wisdom was the fear of God: "timor dei initium sapientiae". He determined that these words, which had obviously stayed with him throughout his life, should also be carved on his tombstone.

Individual evidence

^ Thucydides , The Peloponnesian War 1.118.3
↑ This is the more precise translation of the oracle theorem. The Latin word in-vocatus can, as here means un-called mean, but can also act as called to- be understood (past participle passive of in-vocare ). That is why the more unambiguous formulation non vocatus , which can already be found in Horace, has become established.
↑ Erasmus, Adagia 1232 = 2.3.32. Erasmus quotes the sentence in the version he calls a proverb. In Thucydides one reads: “ αὐτὸς ἔφη ξυλλήψεσθαι καὶ παρακαλούμενος καὶ ἄκλητος. "(" He would himself, he said, intervene to help, both called and uncalled. ")
↑ "ubi quid significabimus etiam non accersitum neque curatum, tamen eventurum, velimus nolimus: puta senectam, mortem, malefactorum poenam."
↑ Horace, Oden 2.18.40: "vocatus atque non vocatus audit."
↑ Book of Proverbs 9.10

[1] Thucydides , The Peloponnesian War 1.118.3

[2] This is the more precise translation of the oracle theorem. The Latin word in-vocatus can, as here means un-called mean, but can also act as called to- be understood (past participle passive of in-vocare ). That is why the more unambiguous formulation non vocatus , which can already be found in Horace, has become established.

[3] Erasmus, Adagia 1232 = 2.3.32. Erasmus quotes the sentence in the version he calls a proverb. In Thucydides one reads: “ αὐτὸς ἔφη ξυλλήψεσθαι καὶ παρακαλούμενος καὶ ἄκλητος. "(" He would himself, he said, intervene to help, both called and uncalled. ")

[4] "ubi quid significabimus etiam non accersitum neque curatum, tamen eventurum, velimus nolimus: puta senectam, mortem, malefactorum poenam."

[5] Horace, Oden 2.18.40: "vocatus atque non vocatus audit."

[6] Book of Proverbs 9.10