# Nostradamus **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [May 20, 2002, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostradamus/109931 "2002-05-20T12:51:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sebhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@Sebhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sebhal)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2002, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostradamus/109931/1 "2002-05-20T12:51:27Z")
If anyone is interested in a little extra-curricular reading, try _The Mask of Nostradamus_ by James Randi– very enlightening. ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostradamus/109931/2 "2002-05-21T00:15:56Z")
And I believe the OP was inspired by [this column](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_051.html) by Cecil. The column has one of my favorite Cecil Adams’ lines, but I see that it was cleaned up in the online version…a phrase in the question was cleaned up as well. The original line by Adams (according to my copy of The Straight Dope), page 51 read: > [@](#): > > There are two schools of thought on Nostradamus: either (1) he had supernatural powers which enabled him to prophesy the future with uncanny accuracy, or (2) he did for bullshit what Stonehenge did for rocks. I incline to the latter view. Love it. 🙂 [sub]And why bother cleaning up the language of our Perfect Master on his own website? Especially when the original is so much fun?[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostradamus/109931/3 "2002-05-21T01:34:55Z")
> [@](#): > > The column has one of my favorite Cecil Adams’ lines, but I see that it was cleaned up in the online version…a phrase in the question was cleaned up as well. Hm. I think this got cleaned up because we initially posted it to America Online when we had a site there, and they had a thing about Bad Words. Never mind, I’ll fix it. One wants the unvarnished truth. ---
**Author:** ![Jojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecd19e/32.png) [@Jojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jojo)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2002, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostradamus/109931/4 "2002-05-25T01:03:33Z")
Hmm… Cecil claims that Nostradamus was using the word _Hister_ to mean the classical name of the river Danube. But earlier on he scorns the notion of Nostradamus using the classical term for Elba (_Aethalia_). Is Cecil contradicting himself here? One minute, the idea of Mikey-boy using classical phrases is laughable. The next minute he’s using them willy-nilly with no problem. Anyway, I dug around in my collection of Nostradamus quatrains and I found the following (I wonder what it refers to?): _In the year of eagles, fire and war, evil will flourish Many will perish though some will eat nectar The humming bird shall sing aloft as below the great city crumbles Oh and Cecil Adams will contradict himself in a column about me dated 13 July 1984_ ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2002, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nostradamus/109931/5 "2002-05-25T07:10:05Z")
Well, Nostradamus apparently _didn’t_ use the term _Aethalia_ (but he did use the term _Hister_, which however is on the one-hand a [well-attested](http://www.romansonline.com/sources/Gth/GOTH_12.asp) [classical term](http://orb.rhodes.edu/ORB_done/Dudo/02-vikings) [for the Danube](http://www.reshistoriaeantiqua.co.uk/Horexp.htm), and on the other hand is a pretty poor spelling of “Hitler”), he used the term _Itales_. “Itales” sounds more like “Italy” than “Aethalia” to _me_, but I’m no classical scholar.