Hortamur fari, quo sanguine cretus
“We urge him to say from what blood he was born.”
Virgil, Aeneid 2.74
What does “Hortamur fari, quo sanguine cretus” mean?
Hortamur fari, quo sanguine cretus translates as “We urge him to say from what blood he was born.”
In context, the Trojans press a stranger to reveal his origins. The line is quoted when someone is asked to explain who they are and where they come from.
“Hortamur fari, quo sanguine cretus” word by word
| Latin | English | Grammar |
|---|---|---|
| Hortamur | we urge, we encourage | first person plural present indicative of hortor, “I urge” (a deponent verb: passive form, active meaning) |
| fari | to speak, to say | present infinitive of for, fari, “to speak” (a deponent verb) |
| quo | from what, from which | ablative singular masculine of the interrogative quis, quid, “who, what”, agreeing with sanguine |
| sanguine | blood | ablative singular of sanguis, “blood”; the ablative here shows origin or descent |
| cretus | born, sprung, descended | perfect participle (masculine nominative singular) of cresco, “I grow”, used in the sense “born of, sprung from” |
How to pronounce “Hortamur fari, quo sanguine cretus”
The main differences are in the c, g and h: Classical sounds the h in hortamur and says sanguine with a hard g, while Church Latin usually drops the h and softens the g before i and e. In sanguine the stress falls on the second-to-last syllable in both styles.
The story behind it
Word for word the line says “we urge to speak, from what blood sprung”: the speaker presses someone to tell the family he comes from. The line is spoken by Aeneas in Virgil’s Aeneid, Book 2, line 74, while he tells Dido the story of Troy’s fall.
In the scene the Trojans have captured Sinon, a Greek who has let himself be taken. They question him about his birth and why he has come. He answers with a carefully built lie, and his story persuades them to bring the wooden horse inside their walls.
Read on its own, the line has become a neat way of putting a simple question: who are you, and where do you come from? That is why it suits family histories and genealogy, though Virgil’s own scene is about deception rather than honest self-knowledge.
How to use “Hortamur fari, quo sanguine cretus”
It suits the epigraph of a family history, a genealogy project or a memoir about roots. As a motto or tattoo it is awkward, since it is an incomplete clause spoken by a narrator, and it comes from a scene built around a lie.
- Latin
- Hortamur fari, quo sanguine cretus
- English
- We urge him to say from what blood he was born.
- Source
- Virgil, Aeneid 2.74
- Era
- Classical
- Theme
- Identity
Common mistakes
- The verb is a first person plural, “we urge”. It is not an order, so it does not mean “Speak!”
- Sanguine is “blood” in the sense of family and descent, not literal blood, and cretus here means “born of”, not “grown”.
- The line is Aeneas’s account of the Trojans questioning Sinon. It is not spoken by Sinon, and it is not a statement about Virgil’s own ancestry.
- As a stand-alone phrase it is a fragment, since quo sanguine cretus is an indirect question that depends on fari. Adding or removing words can break the grammar.
Questions about “Hortamur fari, quo sanguine cretus”
What does “Hortamur fari, quo sanguine cretus” mean literally?
Roughly “we urge him to speak, from what blood sprung”, which is to say, we urge him to say what family he was born from.
Who wrote “Hortamur fari, quo sanguine cretus”?
The Roman poet Virgil, in the Aeneid, Book 2, line 74. It is spoken in Aeneas’s narrative of the fall of Troy.
Who is being questioned in this line?
Sinon, a Greek who pretends to have been abandoned by his own side. The Trojans question him about his birth, and his false story leads them to take the wooden horse into the city.
How do you pronounce “Hortamur fari, quo sanguine cretus”?
In Classical Latin: hor-TAH-moor FAH-ree kwoh SAHNG-gwih-neh KREH-toos. Church Latin differs mainly in dropping the h and softening the g.
More to explore
Translation and grammar checked by Latin Quoter · last reviewed November 2026
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