In the front left side (with respect to the main facade) of the Cathedral of Siena is one of many examples of the most well-known famous magic square: the Sator Arepo.
In practice, an object apparently trivial: a small block of white marble dell'alteza about 20-30 cm engraved with five words, arranged one over the square in shape note, written in small letters and very graceful:
SATOR
AREPO
TENET OPERA
ROTAS
This seems so simple and written in short, a closer examination reveals very curious: first is a palindrome, that is fully readable in every possible direction, horizontal and vertical, right to left or vice versa. Then the translation is very mysterious, and still the subject of discussion of the scholars that have gradually given the many different meanings.
The oldest complete example so far discovered (even with the words placed in reverse, and the sequence cioèsecondo: ROTAS OPERA TENET AREPO SATOR) is engraved on a column in the Gymnasium of Pompeii, and is therefore the oldest of 79 AD, when the city was completely buried by Vesuvius.
Upon discovery, archaeologists thought of a simple word game, a puzzle without too much curiosity secret meanings. And yet ... looking a bit 'better, you immediately notice the two "tenet" in the shape of a cross, which act as "guide" for future discoveries. Anagram In fact, the square and placing the letters in the shape of the cross you get a good result, this: A
P
A
T E R
A PATERNOSTER O O S
T E R
O
"Pater Noster, Our Father in Latin, enclosed between two sets of" A "and" O ", read as the Latin transcription of alpha and omega Greek Apocalypse that symbolize the beginning and the end the birth and death. God, therefore, the "our father" would be a bridge between the beginning and end of everything.
a Christian message, then. A hidden message, because in the early centuries Roman Empire, Christians were often persecuted. A message that even when Christianity became the state religion, never lost its charm: the square was in fact considered so perfect as to become almost divine, and therefore worthy of being written or embedded on the walls and floors of churches and chapels . But he was also invested with a meaning "magic" in the fullest sense of the word, the point of being regarded as a talisman, as we learn by reading treatises and medical prescriptions: written on parchment or engraved medallions and brought him up, or a crust of and bread eaten was a remedy against the evil eye, rabies or bitten by dogs with rabies, while read or uttered became a magic formula, an exorcism or a prayer, such as we read in a manuscript from a monastery where it appears the words "Tetragramatum. Rotas Sator opera tenet arepo Alleluia. "
And who knows maybe even the square of Siena was placed at that point just as a reminder, a sort of exorcism on stone "for the passer-by, reading the inscription, would be protected. The writing, however, was probably engraved before being put in its current layout, and perhaps comes from an older building and was reused. Looking at the square well, in fact, we note that it is not recorded in the middle of the block, but very close to the upper edge, to the point that "or" Sator is slightly cut. Its location in the wall, however, certainly is not random because it is about two meters in height, clearly visible and not upside down.
AREPO
TENET OPERA
ROTAS
This seems so simple and written in short, a closer examination reveals very curious: first is a palindrome, that is fully readable in every possible direction, horizontal and vertical, right to left or vice versa. Then the translation is very mysterious, and still the subject of discussion of the scholars that have gradually given the many different meanings.
The oldest complete example so far discovered (even with the words placed in reverse, and the sequence cioèsecondo: ROTAS OPERA TENET AREPO SATOR) is engraved on a column in the Gymnasium of Pompeii, and is therefore the oldest of 79 AD, when the city was completely buried by Vesuvius.
Upon discovery, archaeologists thought of a simple word game, a puzzle without too much curiosity secret meanings. And yet ... looking a bit 'better, you immediately notice the two "tenet" in the shape of a cross, which act as "guide" for future discoveries. Anagram In fact, the square and placing the letters in the shape of the cross you get a good result, this: A
P
A
T E R
A PATERNOSTER O O S
T E R
O
"Pater Noster, Our Father in Latin, enclosed between two sets of" A "and" O ", read as the Latin transcription of alpha and omega Greek Apocalypse that symbolize the beginning and the end the birth and death. God, therefore, the "our father" would be a bridge between the beginning and end of everything.
a Christian message, then. A hidden message, because in the early centuries Roman Empire, Christians were often persecuted. A message that even when Christianity became the state religion, never lost its charm: the square was in fact considered so perfect as to become almost divine, and therefore worthy of being written or embedded on the walls and floors of churches and chapels . But he was also invested with a meaning "magic" in the fullest sense of the word, the point of being regarded as a talisman, as we learn by reading treatises and medical prescriptions: written on parchment or engraved medallions and brought him up, or a crust of and bread eaten was a remedy against the evil eye, rabies or bitten by dogs with rabies, while read or uttered became a magic formula, an exorcism or a prayer, such as we read in a manuscript from a monastery where it appears the words "Tetragramatum. Rotas Sator opera tenet arepo Alleluia. "
And who knows maybe even the square of Siena was placed at that point just as a reminder, a sort of exorcism on stone "for the passer-by, reading the inscription, would be protected. The writing, however, was probably engraved before being put in its current layout, and perhaps comes from an older building and was reused. Looking at the square well, in fact, we note that it is not recorded in the middle of the block, but very close to the upper edge, to the point that "or" Sator is slightly cut. Its location in the wall, however, certainly is not random because it is about two meters in height, clearly visible and not upside down.
Sometimes, however, words were put into a square shape, but simply written in sequence or, in a curious variant engraved in the plaster of an abbey in Sermoneta (LT) with the letters entered into a spiral .
