Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas
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The words of the Sator Square may be read in any direction

The Sator Square is a word square containing a Latin palindrome featuring the words SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS written in a square so that they may be read top-to-bottom, bottom-to-top, left-to-right, and right-to-left. The earliest known appearance of the square was found in the ruins of Herculaneum which was buried in the ash of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. Therefore, its origins may well predate the Christian era.

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 

'he holds'

Opera 

'works', '(cares)', 'efforts'

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 most likely 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.)

Appearances

Square in Oppede

The oldest known representation of the Sator Square was found in the ruins of Herculaneum. Others were found in excavations at Corinium (modern Cirencester in England) and Dura-Europos (in modern Syria). It should be noted that the Corinium example is actually a Rotas Square; its inscription reads ROTAS OPERA TENET AREPO SATOR.

Square in Cirencester

Other Sator Squares are on the wall of the Duomo of Siena and on a memorial,¹ near the site where composer Anton Webern was shot in 1945.

An example of the Sator Square found in Manchester dating to the 2nd century is considered by some authorities to be one of the earliest pieces of evidence of Christianity in Britain.² Like the Corinium square, the Manchester square reads ROTAS OPERA TENET AREPO SATOR.

Other authorities believe the Sator Square was Mithraic in origin.³

An example is found inserted in a wall of the old district of Oppede, in France's Luberon.

There is a Sator Square in the museum at Conimbriga (near Coimbra in Portugal), excavated on the site.

Christian associations

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. Another claim is that the words are a list of the "mystical names" for the nails pulled from Christ's body ⁴. The associations indicate the square may have been a safe, hidden way for early Christians to signal their presence to each other in a city without exposing themselves to persecution. The Sator Square uncovered in Manchester has been interpreted as early evidence for the arrival of Christianity in Britain.

Magical uses

The Sator Square is a four-times palindrome, and some people have attributed magical properties to it, considering it one of the broadest magical formulas in the occident. An article on the square from The Saint Louis Medical and Surgical Journal vol. 76, reports that palindromes were viewed as being immune to tampering by the devil, who would become confused by the repetition of the letters, and hence their popularity in magical use.

The square has reportedly been used in folk magic for various purposes, including putting out fires⁵, removing jinxes and fevers⁶, to protect cattle from witchcraft [1] and against fatigue when traveling⁷. It is sometimes claimed it must be written upon a certain material, or else with a certain type of ink to achieve its magical effect.

Numerology

Using numerology, one can assign the value 1 to the letter A, 2 to the letter B, and so on, up to 26 for the letter Z. Then, adding the values assigned to the letters in the rows and columns of the Sator square yields the following:

       S A T O R  73
       A R E P O  55
       T E N E T  64
       O P E R A  55
       R O T A S  73

Each of these values digit sum to 10 and therefore also to 1, which some numerologists maintain gives the square "extraordinary powers".⁸

In popular culture

• In Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series the (fictional) city of Ankh-Morpork has a town square named Sator Square.⁹
• It was uttered, though frequently unsuccessfully, as an incantation by Catweazle in the eponymous children's TV series, filmed between 1969-1970, and produced by London Weekend Television. It was one of three habitual recitations; the others being, "Salmay, Dalmay, Adonai" derived from the grimoire, The Key Of Solomon; and "shemhamforash" which is of kabbalistic origin.
• In the 2000AD comic series Sláine, the Sator Square was used as a magical incantaion.
• It is also featured in Valerio Evangelisti's sci-fi book Cherudek, in which an entire town seems to be based on the Sator Square. The book suggests an interpretation of the square that will allow the characters to leave the town.
• Anton Webern’s Concerto Op. 24 is apparently based on the square, and the square is displayed on a memorial,¹ near the site where he was shot in Mittersill in 1945.
• The Simon Necronomicon offers a variation, supposedly Sumerian in origin, that reads 'Danzarg Anzargd Nzargda Zargdan Argdanz Rgdanza Gdanzar'. These meanings are unknown. Each "word" though can be produced from the previous by rotating the letters one place to the left.
• The symbol of the Sator Arts Foundation, a San Diego based arts charity. ¹⁰
• In Nikolai Tolstoy's The Coming of the King, Merlin and Roman sentinel Rufinus have an in-depth discussion on the Sator square.
• The structure of Brazilian writer Osman Lins's 1973 novel Avalovara is determined by the Sator Square superimposed with a spiral. Each letter of the square is associated with a particular character and narrator, and each crossing of a letter box by the spiral (moving from outside the square toward the center) signals a new section for the appropriate character; for example, A is "Roos and the Cities", and S is "The Spiral and the Square". Each successive section for a letter is numbered sequentially (R 1, R 2, etc.), and each one is longer than its predecessor.

See also

• Magic square
• Word square

References

Footnotes

External links

• Duncan Fishwick, An Early Christian Cryptogram?(HTML)
• Sator Square, inscribed, Article; the article uses: "Rotas square"
• John T. Cullen, God Holds The Plough, But You Turn The Furrows: Conjecture on the Sator Rebus" (HTML)"
• "Section of Page and Eloise's Memorial website related to the Sator Square, 1995 (HTML)"
• Magic Square Museum: the first Second Life museum about Magic Square. The first flow is about Sator Square. Vulcano (89,35,25)