Et in Arcadia ego
Et in Arcadia ego is a Latin phrase that most famously appears as the title of a painting by Nicolas Poussin. Literally it means, "And I (too) in Arcadia."
This is a pastoral painting depicting idealized shepherds from classical antiquity, clustering around an austere tomb. Thus the phrase is in fact a memento mori, and can be interpreted two different ways, either "I, Death, am also in Arcadia;" or "I used to dwell in Arcadia as well." The sentiment was meant to set up an ironic contrast by casting the shadow of death over the usual idle merriment that the nymphs and swains of ancient Arcadia were thought to embody.
The painting, measuring 122 by 85 cm, is in the Louvre in Paris and also goes under the name "Les bergers d'Arcadie". Poussin made several monochrome and at least one polychrome draft version on this theme before giving us this famous rendition. The shepherds were less serene in some of these other versions.
Taken at face value, the phrase "et in Arcadia ego" is not a true sentence, since it contains no verb. This has led some pseudohistorians to believe that it represents some esoteric message concealed in a (possibly anagrammatic) code. (See The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Baigent, Lee and Lincoln.)
