Benjamin G. Griffin, amateur translator of Classical Latin poetry
Updated Fri
FORTIS FORTUNA ADIUVAT should never be translated as “Fortune Favours the Bold”; nor is this the motto of the US Marine Corps. (who use, ‘fortES fortuna Juvat’); Nor is it Christian— In fact, it’s a proverb about a pagan goddess. One could also note that revenge is thoroughly Un-Christian, to say nothing of super-multiple homicide sprees. (1)

With this spelling in particular, the Latin is the oldest kind — much older than the modern latin the US Marine Corps uses, and older even than medieval or Church Latin; A proverb that was considered ancient even in the pre-christian times of Caesar. (2) It is quite pagan in spirit. Moreover, it is this very pagan-ness that is critical to understanding the latin in the context of this Anti-Hero’s scratched out and contradictory tattoos.

You can skip my notes, straight to my translation, but you shouldn’t.

fortis = “(The) Strong (ones)”. A plural noun — it refers to a specific class of people, not to an abstract like ‘Strength’, nor the intention or attitude of ‘boldness’ or ‘bravery’ — for which there are robur, audacia or fortitudo respectively.*

Fortuna = is a Roman Goddess, the personification of Luck and/or Fate. A spiritual force that could be just as much bad as good. Note that Her name is placed at the centre of the tattoo and — if you look closely — slightly capitalised in the tattoo’s calligraphy, in the same way that we Capitalise proper nouns in english. It is not mere ‘good fortune’, in the sense of good luck, nor of ‘a fortune’ in the sense of money. This is the goddess of fate and luck.

adiuvat = AD ‘to/toward’ + IUVAT ‘help/aid/save’ — particularly of a goddess, ‘comes to save’/’comes to the aid of’ is the best choice here. Not ‘favours’ which takes poetic license to give an F-F alliteration in English.

Knowing these things you can render it into modern english, and english word order, to catch the sentiment better like this:

fortes Fortuna aduivat:
“It is only The Strong ones that Fortuna (The Goddess) comes to save.”

N.B. These latin words are the polar opposite of ‘the meek will inherit the earth.’

in re Praying hands tattoo: Note, that this literally pagan, absolutely unchristian proverb is placed above — i.e. superior (3) — to the praying hands on his back, and written with the particular late-republican latin spelling of precisely those Romans that hung christ on his cross. How to interpret this contradiction? It is not straightforwardly christian.

in re Shoulder Cross tattoo: Note also that the cross tattoo on his shoulder is struck through with a scar. A bullet? A knife scar? Self inflicted? Or perhaps done so that a catholic or protestant cross more closely resembled a Russian Orthodox ones favoured by his last employer. So, a professional badge? An accident of fate? (See the image in Nupur Shers’s post below, and make up your own mind.)

Finally, these tattoos appear on the back of John Wick. A really dark character, dressed in black, with a deep gritty voice, in a violent revenge film, and a decidedly unchristian one at that.

I contend that these tattoos are not about the superiority of US Navy training, nor of a Christianity that is any more than literally superficial. Quite the opposite, these marks are a testament to the superficial, utterly broken, and all but discarded faith of a man who only believes in Luck— and even then, only because of his own strength (and weapons.)

(1) Need we comment on his previous life as a paid assassin for multiple organised crime syndicates. Not the ordinary trajectory for a christian saint.

(2) It first appears in written history c.160 BCE, in a play by Terence, this recording is noted by Cicero as a vetus prōverbium (Old proverb) C.f. ‘Usage notes’ in fortis Fortuna adiuvat from Wikitionary.

• Interestingly, the Romans these manly virtues had a specific word virtus, which comes from their word for a man vir. We get our word virtue.

(3) In heraldry, placing images above means ‘more important’ or ‘stronger’. Here, we also have the very word for ‘the strong’ placed in this precise position, redoubling this meaning; Note also that the praying hands are beseeching this pagan, unchristian phrase… begging it to change?

P.S. It is fitting that the final sequence has John choose a Pit Bull for his dog. Not a golden retriever. Not a pug. IMHO The only thing that would be more fitting is if he chose a Roman war dog (now extinct) that this latin proverb survives.

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