ET IN ARCADIA EGO

Et in arcadia ego: translation

   In English, also in Arcadia I am. Arcadia is the land of milk and honey of Virgil's Eclogues where shepherds and shepherdesses frolic about. Et in Arcadia Ego is the topic of a painting by Guercino rendered in c. 1618 (Rome, Galleria Nazionale d' Arte Antica) and two by Nicolas Poussin in 1627 (Chatsworth, Devonshire Collection) and 1637-1638 (Paris, Louvre), respectively. These show shepherds and shepherdesses stumbling upon a tomb, implying that Et in Arcadia Ego are the words spoken by Death as a reminder that, even in the land of milk and honey, life is only temporary.