Salvator Britannia?

The main cartoon in today's Daily Telegraph features a portrait of  prime minister Theresa May carrying the legend Salvator Britannia. The basis for this joke is that questions have been raised about the attribution of the picture of Jesus known as Salvator Mundi to Leonardo da Vinci. As this picture sold for US$450 million or £342 million last year that is a fairly big question mark.

There is, however, a mistake in Blower's cartoon - Salvator Britannia means Britain the saviour. The legend should have read Salvator Britanniae, which, of course, means saviour of Britain.

Stars & Constellations

The stars of the main asterism within each constellation have been assigned Greek letters usually in approximate order of their brightness.  (This is known as Bayer designation, after Johann Bayer who introduced it in his1603 star atlas Uranometria.)  Thus the brightest star in the constellation Orion can be called Beta Orionis and Alpha Orionis respectively, although they are better known as Rigel and Betelgeuse.

The interesting point for the study of Latin is that each constellation has a Latin or New Latin name, and the stars are designated using the genitive case of the constellation's name.  For example:

Libra - The Scales,  Alpha Librae
Taurus - The Bull,    Alpha Tauri (Aldebaran)
Leo - The Lion,  Alpha Leonis (Regulus)

Where the constellation name is plural, the same rule applies.

Gemini - The Twins,  Beta Geminorum (Pollux)
Pisces - The Fishes,   Alpha Piscium