#sator arepo tenet opera rotas

[highlyentropicmind]

"The God of Arepo" is a very good story, but I'm a bit angry that he is never mentioned to work with wheels

[psygull]

i haven't even seen Tenet. i'm just a big fan of the sator square

[mateuscosme]

[voktapi]

Klaus Behr

Sator, Arepo, Tenet, Opera, Rotas, 1983

https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Sator--Arepo--Tenet--Opera--Rotas/A28A2AE67E49B918

[museum-of-artifacts]

A 16th century German 'oath skull' (a human skull on which defendants swore their oath in Vehmic courts) engraved with the 'magical' Roman 'Sator square', mysterious palindromic word-squares found across the Roman world, comprising the words SATOR, AREPO, TENET, OPERA, ROTAS

Blog: https://thetravelbible.com/museum-of-artifacts/

[jeanfrancoisrey]

Les ruelles d’Oppède-le-Vieux renferment les traces d’un passé bien mystérieux, l’un d’entre eux : le Carré Magique, appelé également Carré Sator. Le carré SATOR est le plus ancien carré de lettres connu. Il est constitué des cinq mots latins SATOR (laboureur), AREPO (charrue), TENET (tenir en son pouvoir), OPERA (travail), et ROTAS (roues, orbite). Ces mots sont entrelacés en forment un palindrome. C’est à dire qu’il peut être lu à l’endroit, à l’envers, de haut-en-bas, et de bas-en-haut.

The streets of Oppède-le-Vieux contain traces of a very mysterious past, one of them: the Carré Magique, also called Carré Sator. The SATOR square is the oldest known square of letters. It consists of the five Latin words SATOR (plower), AREPO (plough), TENET (hold in its power), OPERA (work), and ROTAS (wheels, orbit). These words are intertwined and form a palindrome. That is, it can be read upside down, upside down, and down.

[talonabraxas]

Sator Square by Adrienne Rozzi

The Sator Square (or Rotas Square)

SATOR (from serere=to sow) Sower, planter; founder, progenitor (usually divine); originator

AREPO unknown, likely a proper name, either invented or, perhaps, of Egyptian origin

TENET (from tenere=to hold) holds, keeps; comprehends; possesses; masters; preserves

OPERA (noun) work, care; aid, service, effort/trouble; (from opus): works, deeds.

ROTAS (accusative plural of rota) wheels

The Sator Square is an ancient Roman 2D palindrome square made up of five Latin words. The oldest discovery of the square comes from the ruins of Pompeii in Herculaneum, a city buried in ash during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. The square’s translation is continuously debated but implies themes of a farmer plowing his field and the continuous maintenance of working the land. Consisting of five interconnected words, the Sator Square is often used as a protective talisman, believing evil spirits will get caught in the repetitive cycle of the square and lose their ability to harm those under the square’s protection. For this reason, the Sator Square has been found in Medieval churches, Renaissance grimoires, and it pops up quite a bit in folk magic practices.

John George Hohman utilizes the square in his famous grimoire, The Long Lost Friend, as a spell to “extinguish fire without water.” Furthermore, the Sator Square has been used to remove jinxes and fevers, as well as aid in safe travels when worn on your person. It is often placed above doorways and inscribed on objects for protection in the home and to ward against evil occurrences. The most fascinating aspect of the Sator Square, however, is found in it’s numerological breakdown. Each word in the talisman, whether in a row or column, can be reduced to the number 1. Many numerologists maintain that this repetition and coherence gives the Sator Square even more extraordinary powers.

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

Vetinari stares at the square. Well, hasn’t everything become singularly childish? Rotas squares – he has seen one of these since boyhood. When the likes of – ha! – Downey would attempt to summon entities during exam season to help with his Klatchian or ancient Morporkian lessons. Because the boy would rather summon unknown forces than study. The symbol in the middle of this particular square is a divergence from what he recalls Downey and Ludo attempting. They would following the traditional pattern: Rotas, Opera, Tenet, Arepo, Sator. The four words written out, each on a new line, to form a square. The nature of the mechanism, and how it was supposed to achieve their end goal, was never entirely clear to Vetinari. But, then, their childish attempts at conjuration preternatural aides never did result in anything much. In fact, it resulted in nothing at all, so far as Vetinari was aware and he would sometimes be sequestered in a high-back chair in the student lounge at one in the morning when such nonsense was attempted.

We all know Downey, as a boy, would pull shit like summoning Feared Lord Aethelrap the UnGodly Harbinger of Death rather than actually doing the homework himself.

Downey: Here is my homework. Done on time, sir, you will note.

Dr. Tindel: And smelling ominously of sulphor.

Downey: . ... ,,

Dr. Tindel: I'm going to have to make it a class rule that you cannot cheat by summoning entities from the abyss to do your homework for you, aren't I?

Downey: It was just a bit of fun, sir.

Dr. Tindel: Well. Did you at least return the entity to the abyss once you were done?

Downey: Yes, sir.

Dr. Tindel: And close out the portal properly?

Downey: Um. I think so, sir.

Cue screams from down the hall.

[squashedcatsorchestra]

Учу испанский по песням!

Как так получилось: я отлично знаю английский и прилично - итальянский. И очень люблю испаноязычную музыку, которой меня, к тому же, радостно снабжает "моя волна" Яндекс.музыки.

А при таком уровне итальянского, как у меня, волей-неволей догадываешься, о чём поют. Что не всегда верно - это другой вопрос. А когда догадываюсь, но не уверена, так и тянет проверить, словарь в помощь.

Но и гипотезами поиграть - тоже тянет. Вот, например, roto - что такое?

Что-то круглое? Sator Arepo tenet opera rotas - палиндром на латыни, его нужно записать в квадрат 5×5, и он будет читаться в любую сторону, горизонтально и вертикально. Так вот rotas - колёса. Rotonda - круглая постройка.

Что-то красное? Когда Rot Front - не только конфетки, но и немецкоязычное наследие. А вы думали, с чего я такая голубоглазая-светловолосая?

Но нет, ближе из известных мне языков - английский: rotten - испорченный, гнилой.

Roto на испанском - сломанный. Разрушенный, дырявый, потрёпанный, аварийный. Невоспитанный ещё - считай, испорченный, как мне подсказали (а что, рецензии на rotten tomatoes - тоже далеко не всегда образец деликатности).

[multicore-processor]

Today I learned that the magic square featured in Tenet

SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS

was actually a real thing from ancient Rome - it means something like "The sower Arepo skillfully operates the wheels" in Latin.

I had assumed Nolan made it up for the movie.

[down-the-c4-blvd]

3

An ancient civilization created a writing system that can be read in two directions, as glyphs are paired in mirrored doubles (like "b" vs "d").

To unlock the door, one must arrange fairly heavy stone blocks with letters on them in a 5x5 grid, with one stone missing on purpose for the movement to be possible. The last letter is known.

Fun twist could be to make the text on the grid similar to SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS - Readable in any direction when put in a 5x5 grid.

[the-twilight-sword]

The Archangels & Hydromancy

I learned this from an Ashikai video, but I noticed that nobody seems to ever talk about this in lore spaces, so I'm summarising her analysis here.

Above is a screenshot of Mona's scryglass from a puzzle we solved in the Unreconciled Stars event. Being that the Teyvat alphabet has long been decoded, we can easily read what it says.

On the outermost ring, in four cardinal directions, are NSEW. On the middle ring, divided into twelve parts, are GBL, URL, MKL, RPL; referencing the archangels of the cardinal directions, Gabriel, Uriel, Mikael, and Raphael.

The order is the same as in the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, which Cyno also uses in the comic.

The inner ring of text says, according to Ashikai, "from the height of the light, in the light of the great God, that he poureth out of the elements in the minds of"

The actual dog latin says:

EX CULMINE LUCIS IN MAGNO ELEMENTORUM LUX SE EFFUNDAT IN MENTES DEI

Which is interesting because the first line matches other texts in the game; the hypostases, and the beastly rifts.

A Redditor points out that all of the hypostases so far have this text except the Dendro hypostasis. The Anemo hypostasis, Beth, the Cryo hypostasis, Daleth, the Dendro hypostasis, Zayin, the Electro hypostasis, Aleph, the Geo hypostasis, Gimel, the Hydro hypostasis, Ge, and the Pyro hypostasis, Ayin. These names derive from the Hebrew Alphabet, and there are more quirks surrounding the Dendro hypostasis; the sixth letter is skipped.

Hydro Abyss mages use the same circle as the hypostasis, and it also appears on the sealed doorway in Mondstadt.

The next place we see this phrase is on the outermost ring of the Beastly Rifts in Elynas, with both lines. In the heptagon, it says "Corax Lympha Miles Leana Messor Phaos Pater", referencing the Mithraic grades of initiation. In the innermost ring is "Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas", the text of the Sator square, a mysterious magical charm used in the Middle Ages to cure dog bites, speculated to be a Mithraic charm, or a tool for working out wind directions.

Then, there's a sort of dark reflection to this phrase in the catalysts of the Violet Lightning Abyss Lectors, which read "Ego sum fatus abyssi ergo mundo. Ex culmine lucis in magno obscuritatis. Lux se effundat in mentes abysso."

What does this mean?

The meaning is unclear. The wiki translates "Ex culmine lucis in magno elementorum" as "From the peak of light, to greatness of the elements." and "Lux se effundat in mentes dei" as "May light pour out, into the minds of the god."

"Ego sum fatus abyssi ergo mundo. Ex culmine lucis in magno obscuritatis. Lux se effundat in mentes abysso.", conversely, is translated "I am an oracle of the abyss, thus I cleanse. From the peak of light, to the greatness of darkness. May light pour out into the minds of the abyss."

More discussion on translation can be found here and here. I find whittaspen's comment most insightful.

As for interpretation, we can easily draw parallels between the four shades and the four archangels.

[luizgcan]

SATOR

AREPO

TENET

OPERA

ROTAS

[tarotdeana]

"SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS"

El cuadrado Sator o cuadrado mágico, contiene un palíndromo de cinco palabras que, sea la dirección en la que se lean, forman la frase: sator arepo tenet opera rotas.

Su origen se encuentra en el imperio romano; los vestigios más antiguos en los que aparece fueron encontrados en distintas partes de Europa y el Cercano Oriente. Uno de ellos es el sitio arqueológico de Pompeya, ciudad destruida en el año 79 d.C. por la erupción del Monte Vesubio. De hecho, se trata del vestigio más antiguo en el que se tiene este enigmático cuadrado.

Existen muchas teorías sobre su significado; sin embargo, todas son el resultado de la especulación. En el mundo cristiano se ha interpretado como un símbolo divino, dado que contiene las letras para formar "Pater Noster" y las del Alfa y Omega (principio y fin), y tiene en su interior una cruz. Se ha pensado que pudo haberse usado para realizar exorcismos; podemos encontrarlo en el templo de San Pedro, en Italia. En la Edad Media, se pensó que si se escribía en un papel y se colocaba sobre el cuerpo, podía curar de alguna enfermedad.

En otros grupos culturales se cree que tuvo un uso mágico - ritual para hacer crecer los cultivos y atraer la abundancia. Algunos piensan que no se trata más que de algún juego ideado por alguna persona anónima.

Se cree que su significado podría ser:

SATOR: sembrador o creador.

AREPO: Probablemente un nombre inventado.

TENET: sostiene o mantiene.

OPERA: trabajos o esfuerzos.

ROTAS: ruedas.

Muchos se han aventurado a traducir la frase como "El sembrador Arepo mantiene las ruedas con esfuerzo". Ésta se ha relacionado a la idea del devenir del destino, la aceptación del destino, la acción divina, entre otras cosas. Algunos dicen que aquel sembrador es el Dios del imaginario cristiano.

En la actualidad es utilizado entre los practicantes de la magia como símbolo de protección contra espíritus maléficos y energías negativas.

www.tarotdeana.tumblr.com

Lee mitos griegos aquí.

Lee mitos japoneses aquí.

Lee mitos coreanos aquí.

[ttaibhse]

anyway.... sator arepo tenet opera rotas. if you even care

[talonabraxas]

The Sator Square (or the Rotas-Sator Square, or the Templar Magic Square)

Sator square, early Latin word puzzle or cryptogram. It is the most well-known example of a lettered magic square, with 25 letters that make up a five-by-five grid of acrostic Latin palindromes. The words found in a sator square are SATOR (“sower” or “planter”), AREPO (an unknown word, possibly a name), TENET (“to hold”), OPERA (“work” or “care”), and ROTAS (“wheels”). These words are often arranged in this order, but examples have also been found beginning with ROTAS and ending with SATOR; this variant is called a rotas square.

When the five words of a sator square are read horizontally, vertically, forward, in reverse, from bottom to top, or from top to bottom, they form a sentence: sator arepo tenet opera rotas. This sentence has been translated in numerous ways, with the most commonly cited being “The sower, Arepo, works (or holds) the wheels with care.” If read boustrophedon (Greek: “to turn like oxen”; zigzag) with the central word repeating, it can be read as sator opera tenet, tenet opera sator, which has been translated as “as you sow, so you shall reap” and, with a more religious bent, “the Creator preserves his works.” Such a reading has the advantage of eliminating the obscure AREPO, which occurs nowhere else in Latin. (Few of these readings apply to the rotas square.)

The oldest complete example of this cryptogram was a rotas square found in the ruins of Pompeii in 1936. This finding, carved into a column of Pompeii’s Palestra Grande, can be dated to before 62 CE, when an earthquake destroyed the structure. (A fragmentary rotas square was found at Pompeii in 1925.) Other rotas squares have been found throughout the Roman world, from Manchester, England, to the border city of Dura-Europos (now in Syria).

After the fall of Rome and the spread of Christianity throughout Europe, the rotas square was supplanted by the sator square, possibly because the square then began with sator (“sower”), referring to the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. Another Christian connotation was that the grid’s middle word, both vertically and horizontally, is always TENET, which can be read as the two arms of a hidden cross.

The sator square’s origin as a Latin puzzle became increasingly irrelevant as the symbol took on magical properties in European folklore. In the 12th century it could be found in medical books, often as a cure for rabies and fever. Sufferers were advised to carve the square’s words into the crusts of bread before ingesting it. The sator square was also often used as a charm for good fortune in medieval times. In the centuries following, it was adopted as a ward against fires; it was inscribed on the walls of German buildings to prevent their destruction. Sator squares accompanied European settlers to the Western Hemisphere, proliferating throughout North and South America in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the Allegheny and northern Appalachian mountains, German settlers continued to use sator squares as magic cures and prophylactics into the 20th century.

Beginning in the 19th century, Christian thinkers and puzzle enthusiasts tried to decode possible hidden meanings in the sator square. Perhaps the most popular was the Pater Noster theory, which finds the Latin name of the Lord’s Prayer, Pater Noster, written twice in cross form as well as four residual letters (two each of the letters a and o), which can be read as alpha and omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet and how God identifies himself in the Book of Revelation. Independently proposed in the mid-1920s by three separate authors, the Pater Noster theory fell into disfavour with the discovery of the Pompeii rotas squares. Some academics have found a basis for the square’s origin as a Jewish symbol, pointing to the Hebrew letter tau as the central symbol rather than the cross. They also point to the large population of Jews who settled in Pompeii prior to and during the 1st century. Another theory places the square’s origins in Pythagoreanism and Stoicism. Others have argued it is a gnostic symbol developed from Egyptian words and imagery. Many such arguments hinge on tenuous theories about the meaning of AREPO, and no theory of the square’s origins has been widely accepted. It has even been noted that another magic square (ROMA-OLIM-MILO-AMOR), which does not form a sentence, was found at Pompeii, and, thus, the 1st-century Romans possibly just found magic squares to be fun.