Hope this helps.


Sheila





"Annuit coeptis" (God has favored our undertakings)
http://www.aoc.gov/cc/cc_quotations.htm

Great Seal Mottoes
Annuit Coeptis

Providence Has Favored Our Undertakings

In the zenith of an unfinished pyramid on the reverse side of the Great Seal is "an eye in a triangle, surrounded with a glory . . . Over the eye, these words, Annuit Coeptis."


This Latin phrase has been traced to Virgil, the renowned Roman poet who lived in the first century B.C. In his epic masterpiece, the Aeneid, he tells the story of Aeneas – son of Venus, ancestral hero of the Romans – and his journey from Troy to Italy.

In book IX, line 625, is the phrase: "Jupiter omnipotens, audacibus annue coeptis." (All-powerful Jupiter, favor [my] daring undertakings.) Also, in Virgil's Georgics (book I, line 40) are the words: "Da facilem cursum, atque audacibus annue coeptis." (Give [me] an easy course, and favor [my] daring undertakings.)


Charles Thomson changed the first person imperative "annue" to the third person "annuit." In the motto Annuit Coeptis, the subject of the verb must be supplied, and the translator must also choose the tense.

Thomson said: "The pyramid signifies Strength and Duration: the Eye over it & the Motto allude to the many signal interpositions of providence in favour of the American cause."

The eye is therefore the missing subject, and the translation would be: "It (the Eye of Providence) is favorable to our undertakings" or "Providence has favored our undertakings" or "God favors our undertakings."


http://www.greatseal.com/symbols/coeptis.html