Help please, what does this say?

[Ally]

And here I was expecting Gareth to come in and say "Can't help you Debs, it's all Greek to me."

[m_w_r]

Hi -

I think it's meant to be Latin, transliterated into pretty rotten Greek.

Letter by letter, then:

nu, alpha, tau, upsilon, sigma (terminal): representing natus, meaning something like "born" (someone will have to help me with the Latin).

And the second word:

rho (upper case), omega, beta, epsilon (very cursive), rho, tau, upsilon, sigma: the last two letters in the upper case for no apparent reason, representing Robertus, meaning something like Robert.

"Born Robert" ... but signed as Roslyn.

It's a pretty awful job, to be honest, and highly pretentious. Old Dean Liddell is turning in his grave.

Regards,

Mark

* I acknowledge that Lynn arrived at this suggestion a couple of pages ago.

[Sam Flynn]

And here I was expecting Gareth to come in and say "Can't help you Debs, it's all Greek to me."

...needless to say, the thought had crossed my mind, Ally

[Sam Flynn]

Hello Chris. By Jove! What about "born Robert S"?

What a pedantic chap!

Wish I'd read this sooner - that has to be right, Lynn (and Mark). I accordingly consign my "talking cat" to the litter, where it belongs.

[Debra A]

that has to be right, Lynn (and Mark).

I agree. Thanks very much Lynn and Mark.

[Chris]

I think it's meant to be Latin, transliterated into pretty rotten Greek.

Letter by letter, then:

nu, alpha, tau, upsilon, sigma (terminal): representing natus, meaning something like "born" (someone will have to help me with the Latin).

And the second word:

rho (upper case), omega, beta, epsilon (very cursive), rho, tau, upsilon, sigma: the last two letters in the upper case for no apparent reason, representing Robertus, meaning something like Robert.

Yes that's clearly the solution - νατυς ΡωβερτΥΣ. And "natus RobertUS" would indeed be Latin for "born Robert" - and the transliteration into Greek brings to mind Rennes-le-Chateau, where the same thing was done to conceal a message in a fake inscription that was supposed to have been on a tombstone in the churchyard.

[Sam Flynn]

the transliteration into Greek brings to mind Rennes-le-Chateau, where the same thing was done to conceal a message in a fake inscription that was supposed to have been on a tombstone in the churchyard.

The inscription on the tomb read "Et in Arcadia Ego"... which, loosely translated, means "This Side Up"

[Chris]

The inscription on the tomb read "Et in Arcadia Ego"... which, loosely translated, means "This Side Up"

Ironically most of the treasure seems to have ended up in the bank account of a man with about 1% of the wit and literacy of the people who faked the whole business in the first place ...

[lynn cates]

pedantry

Hello all. Latin transliterated into Greek--what pedantry! What an ego!

Now I think you can see why I had a brief flirtation with him as Jack early on (when I still believed in Dear Boss and Saucy Jack).

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

puns

Hello Sam. Putting a cat in the litter? I think you'd better scratch that pun since it hasn't even a whisker of a chance in succeeding.

Cheers.
LC

[ChrisGeorge]

It might just be a load of "mystic bollocks", of course. It strikes me that there was a fad to make up incantations/inscriptions in apparently "ancient tongues" amongst some occultists of that era, and later. One thinks of Lovecraft, Crowley and (amongst fiction writers) Dennis Wheatley in this context.

Hello Gareth

Maybe not so much the occult motive as D'Onston once more demonstrating his eruditeness by flexing his knowledge of Latin and Greek in, of all places, signing the marriage register, just like how he had to fling in his knowledge of French in his letter of 16 October 1888 to the City of London police, that the killer took an organ "d'une femme prostituée" for which he (of course) knew a specific black magic use, and that the word "Juwes" was actually "Juives"--French for "Jews"--or so he thought, though it's actually French for les demoiselles juives -- D'O, clever pants!!!

Chris

Chris

[lynn cates]

character

Hello Chris. Precisely! And I think this provides a TREMENDOUS insight into the man's character.

Cheers.
LC

[Sam Flynn]

Chris, Lynn - I couldn't agree more. The man, if nothing else, was a show-off par excellence. (See? I'm doing it now... )

[Suzi]

Gatos did it!...........see I've been telling you all along!

[Robert]

Why can't these mystics be more down to earth - like Roslyn "Municipal Drainpipe" Stephenson?