0

In the opening of Elfen Lied titled Lilium, there are these lines:

  1. Kyrie, fons bonitatis.

    What is the meaning of "fountain of holiness"? Where they dedicating?

  2. Kyrie, ignis divine, eleison.

    Who is or what is "ignis divine"?

Are these words just air or contain some deep meaning?

Aki Tanaka
  • 12,592
  • 8
  • 51
  • 107
Mishkatur Rahman
  • 21
  • 1

1 Answers1

3

To give you some context, this song is sung in Latin and "Kyrie" is the a common prayer in Christian liturgy. "Kyrie eleison" pretty much equates to "lord, have mercy".

If you look at some translations of these lyrics we see the two lines in question roughly translated as:

Lord, spring of goodness. Lord, heavenly fire, have mercy.

So to answer your question, this prayer is a fixed expression praising the Lord. In the Christian context, these words are not "just air" and have history and meaning. In the context of Elfen Lied, the connection is more tenuous.

nabulator
  • 449
  • 3
  • 14
  • Catholic prayers, actually. Most Catholics(as I am one) use those. "Kyrie eleison" is actually a Greek transliteration. It can be used sometimes as Latin. – DreAn AnDre Jan 07 '21 at 14:02