The Nobel Prize Medal for Literature
The medal of the Swedish Academy represents a young man sitting under a laurel tree who, enchanted, listens to and writes down the song of the Muse.
The inscription reads:
Inventas vitam juvat excoluisse per artes
loosely translated "And they who bettered life on earth by their
newly found mastery."
(Word for word: Inventions enhance life which is beautified
through art.)
The words are taken from Vergilius Aeneid, the 6th song, verse
663;
Lo, God-loved poets, men who spake things worthy Phoebus'
heart;
and they who bettered life on earth by new-found mastery
The name of the Leaureate is engraved on the plate below the
figures, and the text "ACAD. SUEC." stands for the the Swedish
Academy.
The Nobel Prize Medal for Literature was designed by Erik Lindberg.
More on the Nobel Medals and the Medal for the Prize in Economic Sciences:
Physics and Chemistry
Physiology or Medicine
Literature
Peace
Economic Sciences
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 2006
MLA style: "The Nobel Prize Medal for Literature". Nobelprize.org. 12 Feb 2012 http://www.nobelprize.virtual.museum/nobel_prizes/literature/medal.html