Well, after reading through two pages of comments on "Nemo", I was more than vaguely disheartened that NO ONE (pun intended) picked up what this song is referencing. Yes, we all know that Captain Nemo's name is a reference to the existential loneliness that his character experiences, but Jules Verne was almost certainly referencing a far older work when he picked out his captain's name, in fact the 'name' that he picked was used by one of the oldest and most well known captain-heroes in all of literature, Odysseus.
For those unfamiliar with the Odyssey, 'no one' or 'no man' is the alias that Odysseus uses to trick the cyclops Polyphemus and thus enable his escape. For the details, read the Odyssey, (it is good, I promise... that is why it has been around for ~3000 years.) Here is a good explanation of Odysseus's encounter with the Cyclops and the pun on his name that is lost in translation: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odysseus
Obviously "nemo" means 'no one' in Latin, so why wouldn't they have just used the Greek word (Ουτις) that Odysseus would have used? The thing to keep in mind is that much of ancient Greek literature was handed down to Western civilization somewhat indirectly through the Roman Empire, which of course spoke Latin. As a result, a lot of the more famous phrases from ancient Greek history were memorialized most famously not in Greek, but in their Latin form. "Nosce te ipsum" the motto of the Oracle of Delphi is the famous phrase for 'know thyself', although the motto inscribed at the Oracle would certainly have been in Greek, not Latin.
Thus, "nemo" is the word that (non-Greek) people will likely pick up on what it is referencing more quickly than "Ουτις", (and Tuomos may have purposely been making a reference both to the Jules Verne novel and the Odyssey, who knows but him?)
If you have any doubts about my interpretation, bear in mind that Nightwish makes more straightforward references to the Odyssey in some of their other songs, like "The Siren".
Well, after reading through two pages of comments on "Nemo", I was more than vaguely disheartened that NO ONE (pun intended) picked up what this song is referencing. Yes, we all know that Captain Nemo's name is a reference to the existential loneliness that his character experiences, but Jules Verne was almost certainly referencing a far older work when he picked out his captain's name, in fact the 'name' that he picked was used by one of the oldest and most well known captain-heroes in all of literature, Odysseus.
For those unfamiliar with the Odyssey, 'no one' or 'no man' is the alias that Odysseus uses to trick the cyclops Polyphemus and thus enable his escape. For the details, read the Odyssey, (it is good, I promise... that is why it has been around for ~3000 years.) Here is a good explanation of Odysseus's encounter with the Cyclops and the pun on his name that is lost in translation:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odysseus