Tempora mutantur is aLatinadage that refers to the changes brought about by the passage of time. It also appears in various longerhexametric forms, most commonlyTempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis, meaning "Times are changed; we also are changed with them". This hexameter is not found inClassical Latin, but is a variant of phrases ofOvid, to whom it is sometimes mis-attributed. In fact, it dates to 16th-century Germany, the time of theProtestant Reformation, and it subsequently was popularised in various forms.
Like many adages and proverbial maxims drawn from the Latin cultural tradition, this line is in thehexameter verse used in Greek and Latin epic poetry. All other Latin verses cited in this page are hexameters as well.
The fact thatet followsnos and is accented in the hexameter's rhythm gives an emphasis to it. In this positionet, normally meaning "and," can take an emphatic meaning and signify "also, too," or "even".
"Tempora," a neuter plural and the subject of the first clause, means "times". "Mutantur" is a third person plural present passive, meaning "are changed." "Nos" is the personal pronoun and subject of the second clause, meaning "we," with emphatic force. "Mutamur" is the first person plural present passive, meaning "are changed" as well. "In illis" is an ablative plural referring back to "tempora" and so means "within them". The sentence is also a hexameter verse.[citation needed]
Change is an ancient theme in Western philosophy, in which the contribution of the pre-SocraticHeraclitus has been influential. It is summarized in Ancient Greek aspanta rhei (πάντα ῥεῖ, "everything flows"). The Latin formulationtempora mutantur is not classical, and does not have a generally accepted attribution – it is often identified as "traditional" – though it is frequently misattributed, particularly to Ovid. It is typically considered a variant ofomnia mutantur "everything is changed", specifically fromOvid'sMetamorphoses, in the phraseomnia mutantur, nihil interit[1] "everything is changed, nothing perishes". However, the earliest attestation is from the German theologianCaspar Huberinus [de] (1500–1553), who instead usestempora mutantur as a variant oftempora labuntur "time slips away", from Ovid'sFasti.[2] But the phrasetempora mutantur is in the passive, where aslabuntur is form of a deponent verb; its passive form conveys an active meaning.
Various longer Latin forms and vernacular translations appear in 16th and early 17th century; these are discussed below.
The earliest attestations are in German Latin literature of the 16th century:
Prior to 1554, theProtestant Reformer Caspar Huberinus completes Ovid's verse inFasti withtempora mutantur. Ovid'sFasti, VI, 771–772 reads:
Fasti was popular in the 16th century, and this passage, near the end of the last extant book of theFasti, is interpreted as expressing the poet's own old age.[3]
Huberinus rewrites the second line as:
The German translation is added in 1565 byJohannes Nas:
Finally acouplet dedicated byMatthew Borbonius in 1595 to emperorLothair I.[6]
Also selected for theanthologyDelitiae Poetarum Germanorum, 1612, vol. 1,p. 685 (GIF).
| Omnia mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis Illa vices quasdam res habet, illa vices.[7][8] | "All things are changed, and we are changed with them that matter has some changes, it (does have) changes". |
In English vernacular literature it is quoted as "proverbial" inWilliam Harrison'sDescription of England, 1577,p. 170, part ofHolinshed'sChronicles, in the form:
It appears inJohn Lyly'sEuphues I 276, 1578, as cited inDictionary of Proverbs, by George Latimer Apperson, Martin Manser,p. 582 as
It gained popularity as acouplet byJohn Owen, in his popularEpigrammata, 1613 Lib. I. ad Edoardum Noel, epigram 58O Tempora!:[9]
Translated by Harvey, 1677, as:[10]
It is incorrectly attributed toCicero,[11] presumably a confusion with hisO tempora o mores! It is sometimes attributed to Borbonius (1595), though he was predated by over 50 years by others.
Georg Büchmann,Geflügelte Worte: Der Citatenschatz des deutschen Volkes, ed. K. Weidling, 1898 edition,p. 506, confuses historical and poetical reality naming emperor Lothair I as the source and the couplet by Matthias Borbonius printed in 1612 as the quote.
Brewer's Dictionary 1898 edition confuses Borbonius' first name (Matthew) with another poet (Nicholas),the entry reading:
Joseph Haydn gave hisSymphony No. 64 the titleTempora mutantur.[12]
InJames Joyce's novelA Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the cronies of the protagonist's (Stephen Dedalus's) father ask him to prove his ability in Latin by asking him "whether it was correct to say:tempora mutantur nos et mutamur ortempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis." The phrase is meant to be an ironic reference to the decline in fortunes of the Dedalus family at this point in the novel.
InPierson v. Post, dissenting judge and futureUS Supreme CourtJusticeHenry Brockholst Livingston argued "If any thing, therefore, in the digests or pandects shall appear to militate against the defendant in error, who, on this occasion, was foxhunter, we have only to saytempora mutantur, and if men themselves change with the times, why should not laws also undergo an alteration?"[13]
The English print-maker William Washington (1885-1956) added the adage as an inscription to his 1929 engraving,St Olave's, Southwark,[14] which depicts the demolition ofSt Olave's Church, Southwark, London, in 1928 to make way for modern development.
The adage is inscribed on the Convention Center atCaesars Palace in Las Vegas.[15]
In July 2017 "Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis" was the first tweet of UK Conservative politicianJacob Rees-Mogg.[16][17]
In theYes, Prime Minister episode‘The National Education Service’, Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby recites the phrase after Prime Minister Jim Hacker claims that "hardly anybody knows [Latin] nowadays".
Quotations related toChange at Wikiquote