Ancient Greek and Latin

[dr0p]

I'm considering tatooing the following, which contains both Ancient Greek and Latin.
I know the meaning of both words\phrases but I'm just double checking with experts incase I make myself an idiot

First of, did I write atheos correctly? assuming I address a person like when I call someone by his name, would it be written like that? or does atheos literally means atheism?
Secondly, I've seen "Defeated" as both Victis and Victus- which one is correct? I already know victae means a female defeated.
Was Comma used in those times? or did they had something else?

The point is to make it as a reminder and a warning, since I honestly believe religion is the worst plague to ever occur to mankind and once humanity abandons reason for talking snakes and people living inside whales, a Medieval-era-like in a nuclear age- that would be the end of us.
the script, in English, should be similar to "Atheist\s, woe to the defeated" as in beware of losing.

Stick to my questions please, I don't want this to turn into a fight around my personal viewings nor your opinions over tatoos.
Thank you.

[Boustrophedon]

I'm considering tatooing the following, which contains both Ancient Greek and Latin.
I know the meaning of both words\phrases but I'm just double checking with experts incase I make myself an idiot

First of, did I write atheos correctly? assuming I address a person like when I call someone by his name, would it be written like that? or does atheos literally means atheism?
Secondly, I've seen "Defeated" as both Victis and Victus- which one is correct? I already know victae means a female defeated.
Was Comma used in those times? or did they had something else?

The point is to make it as a reminder and a warning, since I honestly believe religion is the worst plague to ever occur to mankind and once humanity abandons reason for talking snakes and people living inside whales, a Medieval-era-like in a nuclear age- that would be the end of us.
the script, in English, should be similar to "Atheist\s, woe to the defeated" as in beware of losing.

Stick to my questions please, I don't want this to turn into a fight around my personal viewings nor your opinions over tatoos.
Thank you.

Hi there! I had 8 years of Latin and 2 of those at university so I can answer some of your questions.
"victis" and "victus" both exist. The "victus" refers to a single person (nominative) who is defeated and the "victis" refers to several people who were defeated and it is in the dative form.
So basically it's just singular and plural and different cases of the word

They did not have a comma or any other interpunction because the Romans wrote everything next to each other without even spaces.
I've read that individuals would place a dot above the beginning of every new word but I don't think it was ever a standard practice. The Latin language uses grammatical and stilistic elements to indicate pauses or enummerations etc.

[Armatus]

You could also ask these guys:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=21936

[Winter]

Victis is the appropriate usage. I assume you are looking for the phrase "woe to the vanquished/conquered", so Victis, the dative plural form meaning "to/for the conquered", would be appropriate. I'm not sure about the Greek, since I'm just in my first year of Ancient Greek, but i'm a classics major with 5 years of Latin under my belt so I'm positive about Vae Victis. And no, no comma is necessary in Latin, though I believe Greek does use a comma, so you should check on that elsewhere. If you wanted to use a Colon or a semicolon, that would be in Greek a dot raised to about halfway up the last letter of the word.

Good idea checking on this, by the way; a lot of people don't and end up with ridiculous things written on them for the rest of their lives.

[Argeus the Paladin]

Since there is already a question here, could I ask my own question?

[Miroslav Klose]

Yeah, why not?

[Argeus the Paladin]

I am making up a few Greek and Latin unit names in my story. Do you think these are thematically sound?

Greek:

1) Hysteroi/Misthophoroi Katanaphoroi: Post-Meiji reformed/mercenary katana swordsman. Think Rurouni Kenshin.
2) Toxotai Hesogenitoi: Half-werewolf, half-vampire "forestborn" archer warband.
3) Toxotai Epilektoi: Vampire noble archers.
4) Hemoheilotai: Blood-slaves i.e. the kind of humans vampires "domesticate" to harvest blood from.
5) Nekroheilotai: Zombies.

Latin:

1) Equites Arcani: Vampire magister cavalry.
2) Equites Carabinii: Vampire carabineer cavalry
3) Cohors Alba: Vampire neoclassical "White" cohort.
4) Pedites Consulares: Consular Guard Heavy Infantry.

[Timoleon of Korinthos]

I'm considering tatooing the following, which contains both Ancient Greek and Latin.
I know the meaning of both words\phrases but I'm just double checking with experts incase I make myself an idiot

First of, did I write atheos correctly? assuming I address a person like when I call someone by his name, would it be written like that? or does atheos literally means atheism?

Indeed, it means atheist, but the diacritic is absent, so the 100% correct version would be άθεος in modern Greek and ἄθεος in ancient Greek. Also, this is the nominative case. Thus, it is correct if the tattoo refers to yourself, which is the case from what I understand. But when you 'call someone by his name', you use the vocative case, in which occasion the correct forms would be άθεε and ἄθεε respectively.

Also, in case you are interested, the ancient Greek equivalent of Vae Victis is Οὐαὶ τοῖς ηττημένοις

1) Hysteroi/Misthophoroi Katanaphoroi: Post-Meiji reformed/mercenary katana swordsman. Think Rurouni Kenshin.

Hysteroi means late, not reformed, although in your context the difference is minimal I assume.
Reformed would be Hanamorphothentes

2) Toxotai Hesogenitoi: Half-werewolf, half-vampire "forestborn" archer warband.

Heso does not mean forest for sure. It means inside. Forestborn would be "Hylogeneis" in ancient Greek, and Toxotai Hylogeneis word for word translates into Forestborn Archers. Half would be hemi, werewolf would be lykanthropoi, vampire would be vrykolakai, and warband would be homilos.
Consequently, half-werwolf, half-vampire forestborn archer warband would be "Homilos Hylogenwn Hemilykanthropwn, Hemivrykolakwn Toxotwn", w standing for long 'o' -maybe you should just put o to avoid confusion.

3) Toxotai Epilektoi: Vampire noble archers.

Picked Archers.
Noble Archers would be Toxotai Eugeneis.
Vampire Noble Archers: Eugeneis Vrykolakai Toxotai

4) Hemoheilotai: Blood-slaves i.e. the kind of humans vampires "domesticate" to harvest blood from.

Helots, heilotai, were a unique caste of slaves, exclusive to the state of Lacedaemon (Sparta)
The general ancient Greek word for slaves is δούλοι, while they were called ἀνδράποδα if they constituted spoils of war. Also, the word for blood is αίμα, therefore transliterated as haima.
Thus, Haimodoyloi or Haimandrapoda, although given that the raison d'etre of your blood slaves has a striking similarity to the one of the Helots in Lacedaemon, I don't see why you couldn't say Haimoheilotai.

5) Nekroheilotai: Zombies.

Well, the ancient Greek folkore did not feature any werewolfes or vampires or zombies, so you will have to settle for the medieval and modern Greek terms, and for Zombies there is none to my knowledge.
Nekroheilotai literally means Dead Helots. Does it satisfy you? If not, the closest thing I can come up with is Hapethantoi, which means Undead; is it the same?

[Armatus]

How about mummies you must have a word for that?

[LSD]

How about mummies you must have a word for that?

I believe mummy derived from the latin mumia which could have derived from the greek μούμια which if you latinize it becomes moumia/mumia?

EDIT: Mummy is μούμια/moumia, plural mummies is μούμιες/moumies.

[Dr. Croccer]

Victus is singular IIRC.

[Armatus]

What would be the equivalent to the Latin brigandi? brigandoi? I think brigandos is singular.

[Tellos Athenaios]

atheos means godless, as in godlessness. It is a vice, not a virtue or even a remotely neutral quality -- at least in classical or even koine Greek. In fact, godlessness is among the accusations leveled by Roman society at the early Christians.

[Armatus]

yes I've heard early Christians were considered "Atheists" so that's interesting to know.

[bertram boso]

The comma, along with other punctuation marks (including the period), was invented relatively late in the history of classical Greek, by scholars at the library of Alexandria, but only came into common use in the West towards the end of antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages.

I'm considering tatooing the following, which contains both Ancient Greek and Latin.
I know the meaning of both words\phrases but I'm just double checking with experts incase I make myself an idiot

First of, did I write atheos correctly? assuming I address a person like when I call someone by his name, would it be written like that? or does atheos literally means atheism?
Secondly, I've seen "Defeated" as both Victis and Victus- which one is correct? I already know victae means a female defeated.
Was Comma used in those times? or did they had something else?

The point is to make it as a reminder and a warning, since I honestly believe religion is the worst plague to ever occur to mankind and once humanity abandons reason for talking snakes and people living inside whales, a Medieval-era-like in a nuclear age- that would be the end of us.
the script, in English, should be similar to "Atheist\s, woe to the defeated" as in beware of losing.

Stick to my questions please, I don't want this to turn into a fight around my personal viewings nor your opinions over tatoos.
Thank you.

[Armatus]

Imagine reading with no spaces no lower or upper case distinction, no punctuation (well not so bad) but no spaces... aye...

[Cornelius Plautus]

yes I've heard early Christians were considered "Atheists" so that's interesting to know.

Atheists, because they were away from the Roman concept of religio and the Greco-Roman gods? It would make sense, I suppose.

[cpdwane]

Imagine reading with no spaces no lower or upper case distinction, no punctuation (well not so bad) but no spaces... aye...

I thought you did get spaces in Latin?

[Armatus]

I'm referring to early Latin and Greek writing.

[cpdwane]

Ah ok.