Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas

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The words of the sator square may be read in any direction

SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS (sometimes called the sator square) is a Latin palindrome, the words of which, when written in a square, may be read top-to-bottom, bottom-to-top, left-to-right, and right-to-left, as illustrated here. It's an example of a word square.

1 Translation
2 Appearances
3 In Popular Culture
4 Anagrams
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Translation

The usual translation is as follows:

Sator: 'Sower', 'planter'
Arepo: Likely an invented proper name; its similarity with arrepo, from ad repo, 'I creep towards', is coincidental
Tenet: 'hold'
Opera: 'work', 'care', 'effort'
Rotas: 'wheels'

Two possible translations of the phrase are 'The sower Arepo holds the wheels with effort' and 'The sower Arepo leads with his hand (work) the plough (wheels).' C. W. Ceram read the square boustrophedon (in alternating directions), with tenet repeated. This produces Sator opera tenet; tenet opera sator, translated: 'The Great Sower holds in his hand all works; all works the Great Sower holds in his hand.' (Ceram 1958, p. 30)

The word arepo is enigmatic, appearing nowhere else in Latin literature. Most of those who have studied the sator square agree that it is a proper name, either an adaptation of a non-Latin word or a name invented specifically for this sentence. Jerome Carcopino thought that it came from a Celtic, specifically Gaulish, word for plough. David Daube argued that it represented a Hebrew or Aramaic rendition of the Greek Αλφα ω, or "Alpha-Omega" (cf. Revelation 1:8) by early Christians. J. Gwyn Griffiths contended that it came, via Alexandria, from the attested Egyptian name Ḥr-Ḥp, which he took to mean "the face of Apis". (For more on these arguments see Griffiths, 1971 passim.)

[edit] Appearances

The oldest sator square known was found in the ruins of Herculaneum; others were found in excavations at Corinium (modern Cirencester) and Dura-Europos (in modern Syria).

Other sator squares are on the wall of the Duomo of Siena, on the pavement outside the church of the Knights in Valetta, Malta and on the tombstone of composer Anton von Webern, who experimented with the sator square in a musical way.

A sator square found in Manchester is considered by some authorities to be the earliest evidence of Christianity in Britain [1]

Other authorities believe the sator square was Mithraic in origin [2].

The sator square is a four-times palindrome, and some have attributed magical properties to it, considering it one of the broadest magical formulas in the occident; for example, the 19th-century Pennsylvania Dutch used it to protect cattle from witchcraft [3].

[edit] In Popular Culture

The fictional city of Ankh-Morpork in the Discworld series has a town square named Sator Square [4].

The Sator Square appears at least once in Manly Wade Wellman's "Silver John" stories.

Anton Webern's Concerto Op. 24 is apparently based on the square, and the square is displayed on a memorial[5] near the site where he was shot in Mittersill in 1945.

The dark metal band Sator Square [6]formed in 2003 in San Diego, CA

Rosa Montero's dwarf character, Airelai, in her novel Bella y oscura writes the sator square on a piece of paper to insure her safety as she and the protagonist go out into the night in Madrid in search of another sinister character, el Portugues.

[edit] Anagrams

Anagram formed by the letters of the sator square

It is possible to write a horizontal and a vertical 'Pater Noster' with the letters of the sator square, forming a Greek cross. The two As and two Os which remain are then taken as Alpha and Omega (see above).

Other anagrams include Satan, ter oro te, reparato opes! (Satan, I bid you thrice: Return my fortune back to me!) and ' Petro et reo patet rosa sarona (the saronic rose is open (or obvious) to [Saint] Peter and the guilty one.)

Oro te, pater

There are also several other possible combinations of the letters in a square form. One of them is as follows. If we take the letter o as the basis and then move on the grid as one would move the knight in a game of chess, we get twice the Latin words Oro te, pater (I beg you, father). The unused letters are s, a, n, a, s, which form the word sanas (you heal).