Sator Square

The Sator Square (or the Rotas-Sator Square, or the Templar Magic Square) is a two-dimensional acrostic class of word square containing a five-word Latin palindrome. The earliest Sator squares were found at several Roman-era sites, all in ROTAS-form, with the earliest discovery at Pompeii (and also likely pre-A.D. 62). The earliest square that included explicit additional Christian-associated imagery dates from the sixth century, and by medieval times Sator squares had been found across Europe, Asia Minor, and North Africa. ''Encyclopedia Britannica'' called it "the most familiar lettered square in the Western world".

A significant volume of academic research has been published on the square, but after more than a century, there is no consensus on its origin and meaning. The discovery of the "Paternoster theory" in 1926 led to a brief consensus amongst academics that the square was created by early Christians, but the subsequent discoveries at Pompeii led many academics to believe that the square was more likely created as a Roman word puzzle (as per the Roma-Amor puzzle), that was later adopted by Christians. This origin theory fails to explain how a Roman word puzzle then became such a powerful religious and magical medieval symbol. It has instead been argued that the square was created in its ROTAS-form as a Jewish symbol, embedded with cryptic religious symbolism, which was later adopted in its SATOR-form by Christians. There are many other less-supported academic origin theories, such as: a Pythagorean or Stoic puzzle, a Gnostic or Orphic or Italian pagan amulet, a cryptic Mithraic or Semitic numerology charm, or that it was simply a device for working out wind directions.

The Sator square has had long associations with magical powers throughout its history (and even up to the nineteenth century in North and South America), including a perceived ability to extinguish fires, particularly in Germany. The square appears in several early and late medieval medical textbooks such as the Trotula, and was employed as a medieval cure for many ailments, particularly for dog bites and rabies, as well as for insanity, and for relief during childbirth.

The square has featured in a diverse range of more contemporary artworks including fiction books, paintings, musical scores, and films, and most notably in Christopher Nolan's 2020 film ''Tenet''. In 2020, ''The Daily Telegraph'' called the Sator Square "one of the closest things the classical world had to a meme".

Description and naming

The Sator square is arranged as a 5 × 5 grid consisting of five 5-letter words, thus totaling 25 characters. It uses 8 different Latin letters: 5 consonants (S, T, R, P, N) and 3 vowels (A, E, O). In some versions, the vertical and horizontal lines of the grid are also drawn, but in many cases, there are no such lines. The square is described as a two-dimensional palindrome, or word square, which is a particular class of a double acrostic.

The square comes in two forms: ROTAS (left, below), and the SATOR (right, below):

The earliest Roman-era versions of the square have the word ROTAS as the top line (called a ROTAS-form square, left above), but the inverted version with SATOR in the top line became more dominant from early medieval times (called a SATOR-form square, right above); Some academics call it a Rotas-Sator Square, and some of them refer to the object as a rebus, or a magic square. Since medieval times, it has also been known as a Templar Magic Square.

Discovery and dating

The existence of the square was long recognized from early medieval times, and it has been found on the continents of Europe (and Byzantium in Asia Minor), North Africa (mainly Coptic settlements), and the Americas. Medieval examples of the square in SATOR-form abound, including the earliest French example in a Carolingian Bible from A.D 822 at the monastery of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Many medieval European churches and castles have Sator square inscriptions.

The first recognized serious academic study of the square was the 1881 publication of 's historical survey in ', titled "Sator-Arepo-Formel", and a considerable body of academic research has been subsequently published on the meaning of the square.

Up until the 1930s, a Coptic papyrus with the square in the ROTAS-form dating from the fourth or fifth century A.D was considered the earliest version. In 1889, British ancient historian Francis Haverfield identified the 1868 discovery of a Sator square found in ROTAS-form scratched on a plaster wall in the Roman settlement of Corinium Dobunnorum at Cirencester to be of Roman origin, however, his assertion was discounted by academics who considered it an "early medieval charm".

Haverfield would be proved right by the 1931-32 excavations at Dura-Europos in Syria that uncovered three Sator square inscriptions, all in ROTAS-form, on the interior walls of a Roman military office (and a fourth a year later) that dated from circa A.D 200. Five years later, Italian archaeologist , discovered a Sator square, in ROTAS-form, inscribed on a column in the (gymnasium) near the Amphitheatre of Pompeii. This discovery led to the reexamination of a fragment of a square, again in ROTAS-form, that Della Corte had made in 1925 at the house of Publius Paquius Proculus, also at Pompeii; this find was dated between A.D 50 and A.D 79, and the palestra square find was dated pre-A.D 62.

Translation

Individual words

The words are in Latin, and the following translations are known by scholars:

:; : (nominative or vocative noun; from , 'to sow') sower, planter, founder, progenitor ( usually divine); originator; literally 'seeder'.
:; : unknown word, potentially a proper name, either invented to complete the palindrome or of a non-Latin origin (see "Arepo interpretations" below).
:; : (verb; from , 'to hold') he/she/it holds, keeps, comprehends, possesses, masters, preserves, sustains.
:; : (nominative, accusative or vocative opus] plural noun) work, care, aid, labour, service, effort/trouble; (from ): (nominative, accusative or vocative noun) works, deeds; (ablative) with effort.
:; : (, accusative plural of ) wheels; (verb) you (singular) turn or cause to rotate.

Sentence construction

The most direct sentence translation is: "The sower (or, farmer) Arepo holds the wheels with care (or, with care the wheels)". Similar translations include: "The farmer Arepo works his wheels", or "Arepo the sower (sator) guides (tenet) the wheel (rotas) with skill (opera)".

Some academics, such as French historian Jules Quicherat, believe the square should be read in a boustrophedon style (i.e. in alternating directions). The boustrophedon style, which in Greek means "as the Ox plows", emphasizes the ''agricultural aspect'' of the square. Such a reading when applied to the SATOR-form square, and repeating the central word TENET, gives SATOR OPERA TENET – TENET OPERA SATOR, which has been very loosely interpreted as: "as ye sow, so shall ye reap", while some believe that the square should be read as just three words – SATOR OPERA TENET, which has been very loosely translated as: "The Creator, the author of all things, maintains his works"; both of which could imply Graeco-Roman Stoic and/or Pythagorean origins.

British academic Duncan Fishwick observes that the translation from the boustrophedon approach fails when applied to a ROTAS-form square, however, Belgian scholar Paul Grosjean reversed the boustrophedon rule on the ROTAS-form (i.e. starting on the right-hand side instead of the left) to get SAT ORARE POTEN, which loosely translates into the Jewish call to prayer, "are you able to pray enough?".

Arepo interpretations

The word AREPO is a hapax legomenon (i.e. it appears nowhere else in Latin literature). Some academics believe it is likely a proper name or potentially a theophoric name, that was adapted from a non-Latin word or was invented specifically for the Sator square. French historian Jerome Carcopino interpreted AREPO as the Greek , and believed that it came from the Gaulish word for a 'plough'; this has been discounted by other academics. American ancient legal historian David Daube believed that AREPO represented a Hebrew or Aramaic rendition of the ancient Greek for alpha () and omega (), giving the " Alpha-Omega" concept (cf. Isiah 44.6, and Revelation 1:8) from early Judeo-Christianity. J. Gwyn Griffiths contended that the term AREPO came, via Alexandria, from the attested Egyptian name "Hr-Hp", which he took to mean "the face of Apis". In 1983, Serbian-American scholar Miroslav Marcovich proposed the term AREPO as a Latinized abbreviation of Harpocrates (or "Horus-the-child"), god of the rising sun, also called , which Marcovich suggests corresponds to SATOR AREPO. This would translate the square as: "The sower Horus/Harpocrates checks, toils, and tortures".

Duncan Fishwick, amongst other academics, believed that AREPO was simply a residual word that was required to complete what is a complex and sophisticated palindrome (which Fishwick believed was embedded with hidden Jewish symbolism, per the "Jewish Symbol" origin theory below), and to expect more from the word was unreasonable from its likely Jewish creators.

Further anagrams

Attempts have been made to discover the square's "hidden meanings" by the anagrammatic method of rearranging the letters of which the square is composed.

* In 1883, German historian Gustav Fritsch reformed the letters to discover an invocation to Satan:
*:SATAN, ORO TE, PRO ARTE A TE SPERO
*:SATAN, TER ORO TE, OPERA PRAESTO
*:SATAN, TER ORO TE, REPARATO OPES
* French historian Guillaume de Jerphanion catalogued examples that were known formulas for an exorcism such as:
*:RETRO SATANA, TOTO OPERE ASPER, and the prayers
*:ORO TE PATER, ORO TE PATER, SANAS
*:O PATER, ORES PRO AETATE NOSTRA
*:ORA, OPERARE, OSTENTA TE PASTOR
* In 1887, Polish ethnographer Oskar Kolberg

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