A medieval spell to alleviate pain

I saw this amusing snippet of "Latin" in a number of places online:

Imperiequeritis, tria pendent corpora ramis dis meus et gestas in media et divina potestas dimeas clanator sed jetas as astra levarut.

This phrase is actually a magic spell, supposed to alleviate pain and suffering caused by torture. Well, maybe. Maybe not. The Latin language is the one being tortured here, because the original phrase looked like this (a little piece of Medieval poetry):

Imparibus meritis, pendent tria corpora ramis,
Dismas et Gesmas, media est divina potestas.
Gestas damnatur, Dismas ad astra levatur.

Unequal in their merits, three bodies hang on the tree,
Dismas and Gesmas, and in the middle - God's Might.
Gestas is condemned, and Desmas is lifted up the the stars.

You can notice some words that don't even exist in Latin, medieval or otherwise. Goes to show that one should never find anything found on the Internet for porpuses of tattoos and especially magic spells. I must add that there are many variations in the apocryphal names of the two criminals that were crucified alongside Jesus.


  • #quotes
  • #medieval