SATOR REBUS

SATO R ROTAS
AREP O OPERA
TENE T or TENE T
O PE R A AREPO
ROTA S SATOR

This word square is one of the oldest unsolved cryptograms in the world. Efforts to discover a

solution for the sator-formula date as far back as the fourteenth or fifteenth century. The

Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris possesses a manuscript of Byzantine origin with an attempt at a

translation (see Seligman, Satorformel, (no. 813), p. 174). Serious modern investigation of its

origin and nature began in 1881 with Köhler’s article in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (see no. 775),

and after almost 120 years of archaeological, philological and religious investigation, and much

controversy, no conclusive solution has ever been found for this ‘magic square’. I have given it

its own section since the bibliography is so large and it spans both centuries and continents.

When Dornseiff wrote his study, the earliest text was thought to be a Coptic papyrus of

the fourth or fifth century A.D. However, archaeological excavations at Dura Europas on the

Euphrates conducted by Rostovtzeff for Yale University in 1931-32 and by the French Academy

of Inscriptions and Letters, turned up three more specimens on the walls of a military office that

had originally been a Temple of Azzanathkona. This dated the square firmly to the Roman

period. In the following year, a fourth specimen was found at Dura, and it was suggested that
they must have been inscribed there before the Persians destroyed Dura soon after A.D. 256.

Five years after the Dura discoveries, Della Corte (no. 722-725) while conducting

excavations at Pompeii, came across a version written on a column near the amphitheater. With

this example he was then able to restore a fragmentary example of the square found in 1929 from

Pompeii, discovered in the house of Publius Paquius Proculus. In 1954 another specimen was

found in Altofen, Budapest, which dated to the third century and was published by Szilagi.
 Examples after the Roman period date from the sixth to the nineteenth century and were

found spread over Europe, Africa and America (Jerphanion, Recherches des Sciences

Religieuses, no. 769). In France alone, it goes through an amazing history ofhaving magical

powers attributed to it. At first, the square simply appears in religious contexts. The earliest

example is found in a Carolingian Bible of A.D.822, which belonged to the monastery of Saint-

Germain-des-Près (although there is a distinct possibility the formula is a gloss). In the twelfth

century the formula is inscribed on the masonry of the Church of St. Laurent near Ardèche and in

the keep of Loches. In the thirteenth century parchment of Aurillac, however, it apparently
intercedes for those women in labor. By the fifteenth century the formula had become a

touchstone against fire in the Châteaux of Chinon and of Jarnac and in the courthouse at

Valbonnais. By the sixteenth century, it had become a cure for insanity and fever. The device has

been found in a walled-up section of the chapel of Saint-Laurent in Rochmare, Ardèche, the

ruined convent of Santa Maria in Campomarzo in Verona, the church of Santa Lucia of Magliano

in Aquila, the cathedral at Sienna, and the church of San Pietro ad Oratorium in Capestrano. (See

Jerphanion, La Formule Magique no. 769).

By the end of the Middle Ages, the prophylactic magic of the square was firmly

established in the superstition of Italy, Serbia, Germany, Iceland and even North America. In

Cappadocia in the time of the emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (913-959) the

shepherds of the nativity are called Sator, Arepon and Teneton (Jerphanion, no. 771). A

Byzantine Bible of an earlier period interprets the square to contain the baptismal names of the

three Magi - - Ator, Sator and Peretoras. (Jerphanion, no. 769). Nor was the square confined to

Europe alone. Examples have been found in Abyssinia and Nubia. The Nubia example was

interpreted according to a Coptic phrase denoting the names of the nails of Christ’s cross (Crum,

EEF, no. 712), and in the eleventh century, the five words were used in Abyssinia to denote the

five wounds of Christ.( Ludolf, no. 785). In Germany it was used to put out fires - - the formula
was written on a disk that was thrown into the fire to extinguish it. An edict in 1743 by Duke

Ernest Auguste of Saxe-Weimar ordered that all towns and villages should manufacture such fire
disks to serve as a means of quenching conflagrations that endangered the community. In Bosnia

the formula was used as a remedy for headache and for hydrophobia, and in Iceland it was

scratched on the fingernails of patients as a cure for jaundice. The most recent examples come

from nineteenth century South America where it was in used to cure dog-bites and snake-bites

(Gardner no. 748). Also enclaves of Germans in the Allegheny Mountains in the eastern United

States used it to prevent fire, stop fits, and prevent miscarriages. (See J. Hampden Porter, no.

801).

The discovery of the Pater Noster solution led to general acceptance by the majority of
reputable scholars. See Grosser (no. 752), Agrell (no. 683), and Frank (no. 743) who were the

first. Earlier attempts to pierce the secret of the square had either divided the individual words

more or less arbitrarily or had rearranged the individual letters in anagrams ranging from pious

prayers to diabolic incantations.

There seems to be no end to the attempts to interpret it. To paraphrase Atkinson (p. 419),

in the mysterious region where religion, superstition, and magic meet, where words, numbers

and letters are believed, if properly combined, to exert power over the processes of nature, the

so-called Sator-formula will occupy a distinguished place.

- - - - - - - - - -, “A proposito della formula medioevale ‘Sator arepo’,” Bibliofilia 25 1/2

(1923/1924), pp. 42-43.

Notes several medieval examples of the square and notes that often the author hides his
own name in the enigma. Augusto Gaudenzi suggested arepo was really aretro and
relates it to alepe in Dante’s verse: PapeSatan pape Satan aleppe.

Agrell, S., "Runornas talmystik och dess antika förebild," Skrifter utgivna av Vetenskaps
Societeten i Lund, 6 (1927), pp. 31ff.

Agrell thought that the sator formula represented an early Christian mysticism, and by
calculating geometrically the numerical value of the letters of the figure (A=1 to X-21),
he obtained the sum of 303, i.e. 3 x 101, the ternary number as a symbol of the Trinity.
The theory met with some skepticism, since unlike Greek lettters, Latin letters are not
used as numbers. He also came to the pater noster solution independently of Grosser
(no. 752) and Frank (743).
Aland, Kurt -- "Der Rotas-Sator-Rebus: seine Diskussion in der Korrespondenz Franz Cumont-
Hans Lietzmann und in der Zeit danach", in _Corona gratiarum: miscellanea Patristica II,
by A. Verheul et al (Brugge: Sint Pietersabdij; The Hague: Nijhoff, 1975), pp. 285-343.

Aland, Kurt -- "Noch einmal: der ROTAS/SATOR-Rebus", in: Text and Testimony: essays on
New Testament and apocryphal literature in honour of A.F.J. Klijn (Kampen,
Netherlands: J H Kok, 1988), pp. 9-23.

Alcock, A., “A Coptic Magical Text,” Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 19
(1982) pp. 97-103.

The formula is found on an amulet believed to cure fevers.

Alves Dias, M. M., "Pequeñas notas de história antigüa e epigrafia", Conimbriga 24 (1985), pp.
85-95.

Andrieu, "Le 'Carré Sator' étude nouvelle," in Mémoires de l'Académie des Sciences, Arts et
Belles-Lettres de Dijon (1934 31ff; (1935) 15ff; (1937) 30ff.

Not available at press time.

Atkinson, Donald, "The Origin and Date of the 'Sator' Word-Square," Journal of Ecclesiastical
History 2 (1951), p.1-18.

Demolishes Carcopino's dating of the square to A.D. 177. The two texts from Pompeii show
that the square was known by the late seventies of the first century. He
believesarapennis/arapennis, on which the Celtic arepo depends may well be Italic. He
suggests arepo is simply the palindrome of opera and, as such, a nonsense word. That both
the wheeled plow and the wheeled harvesting machine are attested for Gaul strengthens the
Gallic provenience.

Atkinson, Donald, "The Sator-Formula and the Beginnings of Christianity," Bulletin of the John
Rylands Library 22 (1938), p. 419ff.

The oldest example of the sator formula was discovered on a fragment of wall plaster from a
Roman house in Cirencester, Glos and is now in the Cirencester Museum. Atkinson includes
a photograph of the fragment with this article. Atkinson reviews the immense bibliography
on the subject and divides the main areas of investigation and evidence into five headings 1)
place of origin of the amulet (Rome), 2) the Christian origin 3) the pater noster solution
(see Grosser, no. 752, p. 4) evidence from St. Mark's Gospel, 5) the alpha and omega
abbreviations and 6) its use as a Christian amulet. He believes the odds against this solution
being accidental are astronomical. The article provides a good discussion of the “state of
research” up to 1938.

Baar, T. van den, “On the Sator Formula,” In J.J. van Baak (ed.) Signs of Friendship. To Honour
A.G.F. van Holk, Slavist, Linguist, Semiotician, Amsterdam, 1984, pp. 307-16.
 Discusses the Russian sator squares. See also:

A.I. Sobolevsky, “Perevodnaya literatura Moskovskoi Rusi XIV-XVII vekov,” Sbornik

Otdeleniya russkogo yazyka I slovesnosti Akademii nauk, 74/1 (1903), p. 226.

D. Rovinsky, Russkie narodnye kartinki, Spb. 1881), iii, 87; iv, 581ff and the appended atlas
iii, no. 798.

Bader, Richard-Ernst, “Sator arepo: Magie in der Volksmedizin,” Medizinhistorisches Journal 22

(1987), pp. 115-134.

A discussion of the many forms of the sator formula used as charms to ward off evil or
illness, or used as a cure for diseases or animal bites. Brings together much of the 19th
century literature by Treichel and colleagues (nos. 818-828). Interesting illustrations of disks
containing the sator formula from Nuremberg.

Baines, William, “The Rotas-Sator Square: A New Investigation,” New Testament Studies 33
(1987), p. 469-476.

Baines uses the computer to dispute the pater noster interpretation of the famous square. He
concludes that it is possible to abstract a number of pseudo-Christian formulae from the word
square, and that this proves nothing about its original use. There may well be no explanation
called for other than the inclination of people to construct word games and the fascination
that this partiuclar arrangement of letters held for those people.

(Bastian) for Erman, Adolph, “Die Sator Arepo Formel,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 13 (1881),
p. 35-36.

Erman describes a Coptic ostrakon in the Berlin Museum, No. 7821 bearing theSator
acrostic and refers to Hiob Ludolf, Ad historiam Aethiopicam commentarius, (Osnabrück:
Biblio Verlag, 1982 reproduction of the 1691 edition) p. 351 who discovered these five
words in an Ethiopian manuscript. the five words are identified as names of the five wounds
of Christ: sador, aroda danad adera rodas. Budge (no. 698) Zeitschrift für Ethnologie.
Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte,
13 (1881), p. 35.

See also by the same author, Aegypten und Aegyptisches Leben in Altertum, Tübingen:
Mohr, 1923 p. 486.

Bauer, J.B., Die SATOR-Formel und ihr Sitz im Leben, ADEVA - Mitteilungen 31 (1972), pp.
7-14.

A Stoic interpretation of the square.

Becker, Albert, “Die Sator-Arepo-Formel patentamtlich geschützt,” Zeitschrift für Volkskunde
44 (1934), p. 66.

The sator formula was copyrighted as a business trademark in the imperial patent office in
1921, and was renewed in1931. The company defended its right to the logo in court several
times charging copyright infringement.

Beltz, Walter, “Noch Zwei Berliner Sator-Amulette,” Archiv für Papyrusforschung 24/25 (1976),
pp. 129-134.

Two examples of the sator square appear on P(apyrus) 982 and P 8096, two papyri at the
Staatlichen Museum in Berlin.They are examples of Greek versions of the formula dating to
the seventh century.
Cf. Krall (no. 778).

Benucci, Franco, ROTAS OPERA TENET, AREPO SATOR, Un’interpretazione del ‘Quadrato
Magico’ Pompeiano,”Atti dell’Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere er Arti, Classe di Scienze
morali,. Lettere ed arti. 166 (2007-2008), pp. 203-275.

Biedemann, Hans, "SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS," in Handlexicon der magischen
Künste von der Spätantike bis zum 19 Jahrhundert. Graz: Akademische Druck und
Verlagsanstalt, 1968, pp. 320-321.

Short encyclopedia entry on the sator square. He gives both Christian and Jewish
interpretations. The sator square appears on the cover of the book. It is also illustrated with
an example of the square found in the church of Pieve Terzagni in Cremona, Italy.

Bodman, Jr., H. J., “The Sator Formula: an Evaluation, in Laudatores Temporis Acti. The James
Sprunt Studies in History and Political Science 46 (1964), pp. 131-141.

Bodman believes that no solution embodying a translation of the formula’s words can be
accepted without a reasonable interpretation of arepo. Yet it still seems impossible to find
one. The author gives a good summary of the state of knowledge in 1964 but adds little to the
interpretation except agreeing with Grosser.

Boris, Rolland and May, Louis Philippe, “Le Pythagorisme Secret du Sator Arepo. Lettres et
nombres," Recueil des Notices et Mémoires de la Société Archéologique, Historique, et
Géographique du Département de Constantine 69 (1955-1956), pp. 95-117.

A Pythagorean interpretation of the square.

Browne, Gerald M., "Arepotenet =3D Harpocrates", ZPE 52 (1983), p. 60.

Budge, E. Wallis, (ed.and trans.), The Bandlet of Righteousness, an Ethiopian Book of the Dead,
London, 1929, pp. 37, 75, 101.
 The phrase descriptive of the nails of the cross in association with the sator-formula
occurs in an Ethiopic work, the Lefafa Sedek or “Bandlet of Righteousness,” where the
formula is repeated four times in garbled but identifiable form and preceded once by the
sentence: “in the five nails of the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, I thy Servant Stephen
have taken refuge.” Another introduction to the formula in the same work is “I demand
this by the five nails that were driven into Thy Body on the Glorious Cross, being . . .
[sator formula].” The garbled form of the formula is Sador, Alador, Danat, Adera,
Rodos. It is clear that the Ethiopians borrowed it from the Copts and that neither people
knew what the words really meant.

Reviewed by: J. Simon, Analecta Bollandiana 49 (1931), p. 163-168.

Budimir, M., "Quadratum magicum retractatur," Ziva Antika 8 (1958), pp. 301-304.

Budimir suggests a pagan Orphic interpretation of the symbol.

Carcopino, Jérôme, El lenguaje cifrado de los primeros cristianos," Boletin de la Academia

Nacional de la Historia, Buenos Aires, 9 (1936), pp. 261-271.

Christians in the early Roman empire often had to hide their religious practices or even their
identity from the intermittent persecutions by the authorities. Many of their inscriptions,
therefore, had to be written in code. Most people are familiar with the fish symbol; the Greek
letters of the word ichthus stood for the phrase: Jesus Christ, son, God and savior. The
familiar pagan funerary heading DMS (standing for Dis Manibus Sacrum) when appearing
on a Christian headstone might stand for Deo Magno Sacrum. One of the most puzzling
symbols, however, is the so-called SATOR rebus that has never been fully explained. It
appears numerous times in ancient and medieval contexts and was used as a magical
talisman.

Carcopino, Jérome, "Une note du R. P. Jerphanion sur de nouveaux exemplaires du carré

magique SATOR récemment découverts à Pompeii," CRAI (1937), pp. 84-93.

Carcopino comments on the four inscriptions found at Dura Europas. He points out that the
earlier the Christian community, the more likely they would have had access only to the
Greek text of the Gospels and therefore the pater noster should be Pathr noster. He does not
believe the rebus has a Celtic origin. He also believed there were enough examples to suggest
the rule that magic cube, when found in the Roman world, was read ROTAS OPERA but
when it is found in a Christian context it reads SATOR OPERA. He wants to wait until there
are more pre-Christian examples before making a judgment on its ultimate origin.

Carcopino, Jérome, “Le Christianisme secret du carré magique, " Museum Helveticum 5 (1948),
pp. 28ff.

Carcopino believes the Pompeian examples of the square were written by treasure hunters
among the ruins many years after the eruption in A.D. 79 - perhaps even as late as the third
century A.D. This is contradicted by Atkinson’s article (no. 686) which shows that the square
 was known by the seventies of the first century. He holds that there must have been a Celtic
word arepos from which the Latin word corpus was derived and he cites scholars of Latin
and Celtic languages in support of his stand that AREPO was either an "ablative
instrumental" or a datif d'intérêt' of a word meaning plough. He dates it to A.D. 177. See
Moeller (no. 793), p. 9-10 who finds Carcopino's interpretation strained, Guarducci (no. 753,
754), Hugh Last Journal of Roman Studies 44 (1954) pp. 112-115.

See also Carcopino, Jérome, Études d'histoires chrétiennes. Le christianisme secret du carré
magique; les fouilles de Saint Pierre et la tradition. Paris, 1953. pp. 11-91. Reviewed by
Hugh Last, Journal of Roman Studies 44 (1954), pp. 112ff.

Carcopino, Jérome, "Encore le carré magique ," CRAI (1955), pp. 500 -507.

On the square found at Aquincum.

Cardan, Jerome, De Rerum Varietate, Milan, 1557.

The square as a cure for fever or insanity.

Caviness, Madeleine H., " Images of Divine Order and the Third Mode of Seeing," Gesta 22
(1983), pp. 99-120.

A brief discussion of the sator rebus in the context of medieval artistic patters - - i.e.
expressing divine order through abstract structures including perfect geometrical forms,
symmetrical schemata, palindromes and monograms. Such forms provided the underlying
structure for images of heavenly beings, of those who are spiritually enlightened, and of
man’s position in an ordered universe.

du Choul, Jean, De Varia Quercus Historia, Lyons, 1555.

In the section ”De veteribus Gallorum Magis” he discusses the square as a cure for insanity
and fever. It was used by the ancient Gauls as a febrifuge; used to awaken love or to obtain
favor. As one example: A citizen of Lyons recovers from insanity after eating three crusts of
bread, each inscribed with the magic square. The meal was punctuated by the recitation of
five paternosters im remembrance of the five wounds of Christ, and of the five nails of the
cross: pro quinque vulneribus Christi, quae moriendo accepit, nec non pro clavibus. This
local association with the Lord’s Prayer may go back to the second bishop of Lyons, St.
Irenaeus, who himself had a devotion to the five summits of the cross: et ipse habitus crucis
fines et summitates habet quinque, duas in longitudine et duas in latitudine et unam in medio
in quo requiescit qui clavis affigitur. Irenaeus, adv. Haer 2.24.4.

Cipolla, Carlo, "Per la storia della formula Sator Arepo," Atti della Reale Accademia delle
Scienze di Torino 29 (1893-1894), pp. 209-212.

Collingwood, R.G., The Archaeology of Roman Britain, London: Methuen & Co., 1930, 293 pp.
 Many interpretations of the square founder on the word arepo which has never been
satisfactorily explained. On p. 176. Collingwood (as did Haverfield (nos. 759, 760) treats the
word arepo as a proper noun, though admittedly one of no known connotation.

Corte, E.C., "Le carré magique de Pompeii," Humanités. Revue d'enseignement secondaire et
d'éducation 27 (1954-55), pp. 5ff.

Not available at press time.

Couchoud, P. L. and Audin, A., "Le carré magique. Une interprétation graphique," Latomus 17
(1958), pp. 518-27

The authors believe the square is pre-Christian.

Crozet, Léo, "Credo secret antique dans un carré magique," Bulletin de l'Association Guillaume
Budé, 4th series, No. 2 (June,1960), pp. 572-578.

Crozet is doubtful about Carcopino’s interpretation of the sator square. He interprets it as

Christian, the product of a great mind, created to be obscure. His solution: “Le Créateur,
depuis qu’a eu lieu une Restauration Parfaite, retient l’action du destin.” He proceeds, then,
to show how it fits in perfectly with Catholic doctrine about the early Church.

Crum, Walter Ewing, “Coptic Studies,” Egypt Exploration Fund (1897-98) p. 63.

The anagram spells out SADOR, ALADOR, DANET, ADERA, RODAS - - the Names of
the nails of Christ’s cross. F.L. Griffith, (no. 751).

Crum, Walter Ewing, Coptic Monuments. Catalogue générale des Antiquités Égyptiennes du
Musée du Caire, No. 8001-8741, Cairo: Imprimerie de L’Institut français d’archéologie
orientale, 1902, p. 42.

Another Coptic example of the sator-formula which ties it to the alpha-omega, a device used
as a good luck charm in the same manner, in connection with the cross. One of the
inscriptions is clearly a part of a prayer for the healing of a foot.

Cf. Stegemann, “Zaubertexte,” (no. 814) 18, 38, 52,78.

W.E. Crum, Catalogue of the Coptic MSS in the British Museum, London, 1905, No. 524, p.
254, col. 2, vii.

Cumont, Franz, Atti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di archeologia, Rendiconti 13 (1937),
pp. 7-8.

Cumont rejects the pater noster cryptogram. He interprets the cube according to the
meaning of the words themselves. He believes they refer to various passages in the visions at
the beginning of Ezekial (I.15-17; X.2.9-22) . These passages use words that appear in the
 square "rotae, opera" and the meanings of the words tenet, sator" but nothing corresponds to
the word arepo. and this word remains unexplained. See Cumont, Franz, CRAI 1937, 93 ff.

Curvers, Alexis, " Le carré magique," in: Itinéraires Part I: 120 (1968) 33ff; Part II:121 (1968)
168ff.; Part III: 122 (1968) 329ff.; Part IV: 123 (1968) 876ff.; Part V: 124 (1968) 93ff.; Part
VI: 125 (1968) 258ff.; Part VII: 126 (1968) 117ff.; Part VIII: 128 (1968) 111ff.

An eight-part overly-labored piece of research that was unedited and was ultimately meant to
appear in a book called De La Subversion. A very Catholic interpretation, ultimately
unconvincing.

Dain, A., "Au dossier du mot carré 'Sator'," Revue des Études Latines 29 (1951), pp. 84-85.

Text of a sator square found in the 15th century legal manuscript (Parisinus Suppl. gr. 1238)
in Greek characters.

Daniélou, Jean, Primitive Christian Symbols, trans. by Donald Attwater, Baltimore: Helicon
Press, 1964 pp. 99-101.

Danéliou suggests that Irenaeus of Lyons knew of the cryptogram and spoke of Him "who
joined the beginning with the end, and is the Lord of both, and has shown forth the plough at
the end," (Adv. haer. 4.34.4). Irenaeus was refuting the Gnostics who interpreted John 4.37,
"One sows, another reaps," as an opposition between the Demiurge, who created, and Christ,
who redeemed. He maintained that the creator and the redeemer are one, and the passage
refers to the cross, symbolized by the plow, which was shown forth at the beginning or seed
time, and in the end at the final weeding.

Darmstaeder, Ernst, "Die Sator-Arepo-Formel und ihre Erklärung," Isis. Quarterly Organ of the
History of Science Society 18 (1932), pp. 322-329.

Still another author who attributes a religious meaning to the famous palindrome. His
solution to the formula: Sator Tenet Opera Rotas Arepo is: “The Sower holds with (for)
his sheep the wheels.” Symbolically, Sator = God, Rotas: the constellations, Sun and
Moon, Arepo, which has never been translated. He unscrambles arepo into pareo (I
appear, am visible, show myself) or “I command, lead me.”

Daube, David, "Arepo' and the 'Sator' Square, Expository Times 62 (1951), pp. 316.

Daube discussed the mysterious and unexplained word AREPO in the square. He
believes it is Hebrew or Aramaic for alpha omega (aleph o), and thus gives a Jewish-
Christian origin to the square.

Jagor, “Die Formel Sator arepo,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 14 (1882), p. 415 - 416.
 Jagor finds an example of the sator square in Charles Davilllier’s Voyage en Espagne,
(1872, vol. 2, p. 376). In the book, Davillier reports that at the Chateau Rochemaure on
the banks of the Rhone, there is an inscription that contains the sator rebus.

Delatte, A., Anecdota Atheniensia, Liège-Paris, 1927.

The author includes a number of magic spells that contain garbled versions of the sator
formula as well as several magic texts attributed to Solomon. These two elements are not
found combined. Metal talismans called seals of Solomon are known in Byzantium, but
they do not contain the sator square. Ryan (no. 805).

Della Corte, Matteo,”I cristiani a Pompeii,” Rendiconti Accademia di Archeologia, Lettere e

belle arti di Napoli , 12 (1936), pp. 394-400.

In 1936 a version of the sator arepo square was found on the column of a building
cleared near the amphitheatre at Pompeii, and this led Della Corte to recognize that in
1929 he had already published fragments of a similar text from the house of P. Paquius
Proculus in the same city. The examples found in the palaestra may have been done by
military personnel because the palaestra was used as a barracks. The examples at
Cirencester (Haverfield, nos. 759, 760) and Dura Europas (Rostovtzeff, nos. 803-804)
were also found in military contexts.

See Notizie delle Scavi, Ser. 6, vol 5 (1939), p. 449, no. 112.

See also , "Il crittogramma del Pater Noster," Rendiconti Accademia di Archeologia,
Lettere e belle arti di Napoli , 17 (1937), pp. 96ff.

Della Corte, Matteo, Rendiconti Accademia di Archeologia, Lettere e belle arti di Napoli 19
(1939), pp. 28-30.

Discussion of the pater noster theory of the Rotas-Opera square, its earliest appearance,
whether the formula is Christian, and the Christians at Pompeii.

Della Corte, Matteo, Reale Istituto di Archeologia e Storia dell’Arte. Atti della Reale Accademia
Nazionale dei Lincei, Notizie degli Scavi di antichità 6,5(1929) p. 449, no. 112; 15
(1939), pp. 263, no.139.

The discovery at Pompeii of two specimens of the rotas-sator rebus. These are the
earliest examples so far discovered and confirm that the original version began with rotas
rather than sator. One fragment was found in a private home, and the other is a complete
version of the square scratched in a column in the palaestra, both of them beginning with
the word rotas. They may be dated between 50 and 79 A.D. because the decoration of the
house is in a style generally agreed to have been developed after A.D. 50, and Pompeii
was destroyed in A.D. 79.
Della Corte, Matteo, “ I Cristiani a Pompei,” Rendiconti Accad. di Arch., Lettere e belle arti di
Napoli 19 (1936), pp. 5-30.

Basing his conclusions on a thorough study of the Pompeii graffiti, Della Corte is certain
that Christians were present at Pompeii, although probably not in great numbers. He
defend’s Grosser’s Pater noster solution against the criticism of Jerphanion. Among his
proofs he offers the epigraph [Cristiani found in the atrium of the Hospitium and a cross
in a bas relief over a corner shrine in the house of Pansa. (p. 6). Both Della Corte and
Atkinson believe that the Lord’s Prayer was recited immediately by all Christians and
was translated into Latin at an early date.

Deonna, W., “Talismans Magiques trouvés dans l’Ile de Thasos,” Revue des Études Grecques
20 (1907), pp. 364-382.

Page 365 illustrates an example of the sator square on a bronze disk from, Thasos.
Deonna suggests that the formula should be read in a line, separated into words at other
points that every fifth letter, or that it should be read boustrephedon that is, the first line
from left to right, the second from right to left, etc. This solution supposes a transitional
phase in writing between cultures with writings in opposite directions. Although this
condition existed between Semitic languages and Latin, it would imply that the formula
was evolved in a Semitic culture. There is no evidence at this point to suggest that this
was the case.

Dieterich, Albrecht, "ABC-Denkmaeler," Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 56 (1901), pp.

77-105.

Thinks the rotas rebus is a "giuoca di parole" i.e. simply a word game.

Dinkler, E. , “Sator arepo,” in Die Religion in Geschcihte und gegenwart. Handwörterbuch für
Theologie und Religionswissenschaft, 3rd rev. edition, 1961, vol. 5 1373-74.

Dinkler, E. -- "Miscellanea archeologiae christianae", Theologische Rundschau 46 (1981), pp.

219-236.

Doignon, Jean, "Le carré magique et Sainte Irénée," Bulletin de la Faculté des Lettres de
Strasbourg 34 (1955-1956), pp. 232-234.

Doignon focuses on the translation of arepo and relates it to a passage in Saint Irenaeus,
Adv. haer. 4.34.4 as did Carcopino. He feels that the number five is privileged in the
text, and that the Gnostics played around with the symbolism of the number five. This
square may have been Gnostic propaganda later turned into a Christian symbol by St.
Irenaeus.

Duplicated in Revue des Études Latines 33 (1955), pp. 82ff.

Dornseiff, Franz, "Das Rotas-Opera-Quadrat," Zeitscrift für neuetestamentlische Wissenschaft
36 (1937), pp. 222-238.

Dornseiff accepts Cumont's explanation of the rotas formula being based on Ezekiel, but
believes that the prophecy of Ezekiel is a secondary influence, and that the primary root
of the square is the pater noster. This makes it primarily a Christian-Judaic manifestation
in Pompeii. He suggests that the "rotas" figure was conceived in Judaic or Christian-
Judaic circles in Pompeii for the purpose of condemning Rome by practic ing black
magic. Dornseiff also proposes that the formula had a prophylactic sense, and indicates
the four T's that can be explained like the sign tav in the vision of Ezekiel (IX 4-6). Not
convincing. For the counter argument, see Sundwall, (no. 815), p. 13.

Dornseiff, F., Das Alphabet und Mystic und Magie, 2nd ed. Leipzig: 1925 79 & 179.

Discusses the Satorformel along with other acrostics and magic formulas from antiquity.
He accepts the pater noster arrangement.

Reviewed in Gnomon 6 (1930), pp. 361-368 by Otto Weinreich.

Dornseiff, Franz, "Martialis IX, 95 und das Rotas Opera Quadrat," Rheinisches Museum für
Philologie 96 (1953), pp. 373-378.

Dornseiff finds in the Alfius-Olfius transformation in Martial’s epigram an echo of the

Alpha-Omega in the rotas-sator square.

Eitrem, S., The SATOR AREPO-fomula once more, Eranos 48 (1950), pp. 73ff.

Suggests an orphic interpretation and believes it is of local Italian origin.

Emminghaus, J. H., "Satorformel," Lexicon für Theologie und Kirche 9 (1964), pp. 343 -344.

A short encyclopedic entry on the sator formula with bibliography divided into Christian,
Jewish and other interpretations.

Erman, Adolf and Krebs, Fritz, Aus den papyrus der Könglischen Museen, Berlin: W. Spemann,
1899), p. 262.

The earliest example of the sator square found on a papyrus in Egypt dated to the fourth or
fifth century. It shows no evidence of a Christian association. It is merely a formula inscribed
in Coptic letters on papyrus. There is a two-century gap in the evidence in this area before
several Coptic and Ethiopic examples would be found in strikingly Christian contexts dating
to the 6th or 7th centuries.

Euringer, Sebastian, "Das SATOR-AREPO-Quadrat: Aberglaube oder Arkandisziplin?,"

Historisches Jahrbuch 71 (1952), pp. 334-353.
 Another survey of the discussions on the square, plus his spin on the theory that words stand
for the name of the nails used to crucify Jesus and how this secret information was passed on
through the ages.

Ferguson, John -- Rez. Moeller, W.O., “The Mithraic Origin and Meanings of the Rotas-Sator
Square,” Etudes preliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'empire romain 38, (Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1973), in JRS 64 (1974), p. 242.

Ferrua, A., Sull’esistenza di cristiani a Pompei,” Civiltà Cattolica 3 (17 July 1937), pp.127-139.

Ferrua gives a brief review of the discussion over the rotas-sator square found at Pompeii.
He considers whether the origins are Christian, pagan or Jewish, considers Grosser's theory
on the pater noster solution, and then comes up with the best explanation for what the
cryptogram means: "Esattamente quello che si vuole"(!) E basta di questo argumento. (It
means exactly what you want it to mean. And so much for that argument!).

Fishwick, Duncan, "On the Origins of the Rotas-Sator Square Harvard Theological Review 57
(1964), pp. 39-54.

Fishwick asks the question: “Is it or is it not sheer chance that the letters of the square can be
rearranged in two intersecting pater noster’s with two A’s and two O’s remaining to be
positioned at will?” He sides with Cumont and Jerphanion in believing the origin of the
squares from Pompeii have a Jewish origin. He believes the form we now have originated
with Latin-speaking Jews in the period immediately preceding the Christian era. It fell out of
use, only to be revived as a Christian symbol at Dura Europas, Aquincum, and Cirencester.
From the Middle Ages on it won fame as a reliable talisman against fire, tempest, theft and
sickness.

Fishwick, Duncan, “An Early Christian Cryptogram?, ”Report- Canadian Catholic Historical
Association, 1 (1959), pp. 29-41.

A good summary of the state of research in 1959. Fishwick believes that the square consists
of five words ingeniously evolved from the pater noster charm which, when properly
combined, form a square that can be read in four different directions. The ‘magic’ of the
square is basically the perfect symmetry of its component letters. These also contain cryptic
Jewish symbols to those who know their origin and secret. Constructing such a square from
the pater noster is, according to the author, “a technical achievement of the highest order.”
He believes those who require that the individual words, (including the palindrome for opera
that is not even a Latin word) also be meaningful when read concurrently, is to ask the
impossible. Any superficial meaning that can be wrung from them is, therefore, purely
superficial. The final verdict on the origin of the Rotas-Sator square is clearly dependent on
future archaeological discoveries. In the form we have it now, it should be described as a
charm that originated with Latin-speaking Jews settled in Italy in the period immediately
prior to the Christian era.
Focke, F., "Sator Arepo: Abenteuer eines magischen Quadrats," in Würzburger Jahrbücher für
Altertumswissenschaft 3 (1948), pp. 366-401.

Focke maintains that it is a mere accident that the square contains letters that can be arranged
as to intersecting pater nosters, together with two As and two Os rather than having the
square deliberately constructed to contain these letters so as to serve as a sign which might
be recognizable by Christians without arousing the suspicion of pagans.

Forbes, T. R., “Word Charms and the Sator Mystery,” in The Midwife and the Witch, New
Haven-London, 1966, pp. 80-93.

Examples of how the sator square was used as a spell against fire, to prove whether a person
was a witch or not, against poisonous air and pestilence and against sorcery

Franco, Marchese P., “Sator Arepo Formel,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (Organ der Berliner
Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte) 13 (1881), p. 333-334.

The anagram is solved as: Pater, oro te, pereat Satan roso. Roso comes from rodere, to bite
as in dog bite. Thus another example of the charm being used as a preventative or cure for
dog bites.

Frank, Chr., Deutsche Gaue 25 (1924) p. 76.

Frank stumbled upon the pater noster solution independently of Grosser and Agrell

Fritsch, H., “Die Bedeutung des Sator-Spruches,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (Organ der Berliner
Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte), (1883), p. 535.

Fritsche rearranges the letters and finds in them an invocation to Satan: Satan oro te pro
arte a te spero.

Fritsch, G., “Sator Tenet Opera Rotas,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (Organ der Berliner
Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte) (1917), pp. 144-145.

He reviews an article by Alexander Moskowski in the Vossischen Zeitung about

‘Buchstabenspiele” and uses it to give to the Sator square a numerical value that
translates to an invocation of Satan.

Frugoni, Arsenio, "Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas," Rivista di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa 1
(1965), pp. 433-439.

Frugoni surveys the literature and then concludes that the square meant different things to
different people, but probably originated as a piece of word play and cites its appearance
in the Carme delle scolte modenesi where it is written in the margin next to another
famous palindrome: Roma muro luceas summus saeculorum amor.
Fuchs, M. Harald, "Die Herkunft der Satorformel," Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde 47
(1951), pp.28-54.

The most astonishing feature of the solutions to the mystery are the number of
purportedly meaningful texts that can be wrung from this extraordinary word square.
Fuchs lists over thirty anagrams. The article also contains an excellent bibliography.
Fuchs sides with a Jewish interpretation of the square.

Gardner, George, Travels in the Interior of Brazil, principally through the Northern Provinces
and the Gold and Diamond Districts during the years 1836-1841, New York: AMS Press,
1970, 562 pp.

Pp. 52-53 give the most recent example of the square being used as a cure for dog-bites
and snake bites. Each line of the acrostic is to be written separately on a slip of paper and
then rolled into the form of a pill. All five are to be given to the patient as soon as
possible after the person (or animal) has been bitten.

Germain, Gabriel, "Contemplation et Interprétation du ‘carré magique’," Bulletin de

l'Association Guillaume Budé, 4th series, No. 1, (1966), pp. 124-132.

Written in response to the publication of Jerome Carcopino’s Études d'histoires

chrétiennes. Le christianisme secret du carré magique; les fouilles de Saint Pierre et la
tradition. Paris, 1953. Another translation that revolves around the Jesus as sower motif.

Griffith, F. L. (ed.), Egypt Exploration Fund: Archaeological Report, London, 1897-98, p. 63.

In the desert west of Faras in Nubia, an inscription in a tomb consists of a prayer dated A.D.
739 for the soul of a certain Theophilus. The sator-formula is included in columns of
inscriptions among which is a Coptic version of the apocryphal letter from Jesus to Abgar V,
King of Edessa, a letter widely employed by the Copts as a prophylactic against illness.
Another list records the names of the forty martyrs of Sabaste, also a talisman against
disease. The final lists consists of the sator -formula in linear form preceded by the phrase:
“These are the names of the nails of Christ.” The names are SADOR, DANET, ADERA,
RODAS.

See also, A.H. Sayce, “”Gleanings from the Land of Egypt,” Rec Trav 20 (1898), p. 176.

Griffiths, J. Gwyn, "'Arepo' in the Magic 'Sator' Square, Classsical Review 80 (1971), pp. 6-8.

Gives a plausible explanation of the word arepo as a personal name derived from the
Egyptian Hr-Hp. He proposes an Egyptian, specifically an Alexandrine origin where there
was a Gnostic tradition that used acrostics.

Grosser, Felix, "Ein neuer Vorschlag zur Deutung der sator-Formel," Archiv für
Religionswissenschaft 24 (1926), pp. 165-169.
 Grosser, a German priest, caused a furor when he published this article in 1926. By
rearranging the letters of the Sator rebus, he created a Christian cryptogram of two pater
nosters crossing on the common N and with A and O at the ends of the cross.This referred to
the Apocalypse's symbolism of God as the Beginning and the End. He believed theSator
rebus was invented during the persecutions of the Christians. Unbeknownst to him, a
Swedish scholar working simultaneously and independently, came to the same conclusion.
Agrell, (no. 683). Cf. Rostovtzeff, (nos. 803, 804), and Sundwall (no. 815).

Guarducci, Margherita, "Il misterioso 'Quadrato Magico'" L'interpretazione di Jérome Carcopino

e documenti nuovi," Archeologia Classica 17 (1965), pp. 219-270.

Guarducci successfully puts to rest Carcopino’s shaky interpretation. She cites the work of
Amedeo Maiuri on the excavations at Pompeii where two examples of the Sator rebus were
found. This work was overlooked by Carcopino. She concludes the formula is a simple word
game.

Guarducci, M., "Il misterioso AREPO", Miscellanea etrusca e italica in onore di Massimo
Pallotino (Archeologia classica 4), Roma: “L'Erma” di Bretschneider, 1991, pp. 589-596.

Guarducci, Margherita, “Ancora Sul ‘Quadrato Magico,” Archaeologica Classica 19 (1967), pp.
9-10.

La Guarducci compares the Rotas/Opera/Tenet/Arepo/Sator palilndrome to another which

reads Roma/Olim/Milo/Amor. There are examples of this word game from Ostia, Pompeii,
and another found at Bolonia (Belo in the province on Cadice) found during the 1917-21
excavations there.

Guarducci, Margherita -- "Dal gioco letterale alla crittografia mistica," ANRW, Principat 16/2,
pp. 1736-1773.

Gunn, Charles Douglas, The Sator-arepo Palindrome. A New Inquiry into the Composition of an
Ancient Word Square. Unpublished Dissertation, Yale University, 1969.

Gunn examines the idea that the Sator formula is simply a gibberish abracadabra. He was
one of the first scholars to use the computer to prove his case.

Available on microfilm at Yale; non-circulating.

Handelmann, H., “Diskussionsbemerkung,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 12 (1880) pp 216-217.

Handelmann, H., “Satorformel,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 18 (1886) p. 315.

Another dogbite formula.

Hardenberg, Kuno von, Damstädter Tageblatt, 1935 no. 69.

Another ingenious anagram. Hardenberg believed he had found in the square a reference to
the comfort the Rose of Sharon is said to have brought to St. Peter for his sin in denying
Christ. Petro et Reo Patet Rosa Sarona. i.e. “For Peter even guilty the rose of Sharon is
open.” The interpretation is dubious since the authority given for this incident (Acts 9.35) is
dubious, and there is no reference to the Rose of Sharon, at least in the Vulgate. The incident
is probably apochryphal and merely a poetic tradition. Both the incident and the Latinity of
von Hardenberg’s solution have been questioned. (Fishwick, p. 34 no. 738 ).

Haverfield, F., "A Roman Charm from Cirencester," Archaeological Journal 56 (1889), pp.
319-23.

At the time the Cirencester inscription with the sator square was found in 1868,
Haverfield considered it to be the first Roman example of the charm to be found. His
theory was discounted at the time because no other instances were known that could be
dated before the 8th or 9th century. Haverfield based his interpretation on the forms of
the letters and the general Romano-British character of the find spot. The article contains
a full-size photo of the inscription. Haverfield is clueless as to the meaning although he
rehashes a few of the older interpretations.

Haverfield, F., Ephemeris Epigraphica . Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum Supplementum, Vol.

IX, fasciculus quartus. Addimenta quinta ad Corporis volumen VII, p. 519, no. 1001,
Berlin 1913.

Haverfield, F., "Notes on the Roman Origin of a Medieval Charm," Journal of the
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 22 (1899), p. 306ff.

Hepding, Hugo, "Die Satorformel," Hessische Blätter für Volkskunde 34 (1935), pp. 111-113.

A short notice on the discovery of four new examples of the square found in Dura
Europas.

Hepding, Hugo, “Die Sator-Formel,” Hessische Blätter für Volkskunde 36 (1937), pp. 175-176.

Short notice on the discovery of the sator formula in Pompeii.

Hickes, T.D., “Roman Square Palindrome: Inscription at Cirencester,” Notes and Queries
February 16, 1924, p. 119.

Hofman, Heinz, Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertums Wissenschaft,

Supplementband XV (Munich,1978), col.477-565.
 Hoffman provides historians of Graeco-Roman religion with an exhaustive, 87 column
account of the attempts to solve the puzzle since 1823. He adopts and strongly defends
the position taken by Hildebrecht Hommel in 1952, that the square has a Stoic-
Pythagorean origin.

Hofmann, Heinz, "Zum Rotas-Opera-Quadrat von Aquincum", ZPE 13 (1974), pp. 79-83.

Hofmann, Heinz -- Rez. Moeller, Walter O., “The Mithraic Origin and Meanings of the ROTAS-
SATOR Square” Gnomon 48 (1976), pp. 89-91.

Hommel, Hildebrecht, Schöpfer und Erhalter, Studien zum Problem Christentum und Antike,
Berlin: Lettner Verlag, 1956, pp. 32-79.

Following an old French anonymous suggestion going back to 1854, he assumes that the
Sator square was written boustrephedon (zigzag), and that the middle word tenet should
be read twice - - Sator opera tenet: (tenet) opera Sator, which he translates, “Der
Schöpfer (Sämann, Vater) erhält seine Werke” or “The Creator preserves his works.” He
believes the sator square derives from a Stoic-Pythagorean setting.

Hommel, Hildebrecht, "Satorformel," Lexicon der Alten Welt, Zürich & Stuttgart: Artemis
Verlag, 1965, 2705.1969, p. 2706.

Short summary of the formula and its history.

Ihlenfeldt, Margaret, "Bread-wrapper Palindrome," Classical Journal 49 (1953), p. 100.

A high school student in Springfield, Illinois found the sator formula on the back of a
bread wrapper. The students not only noticed that the sentence reads the same backwards
as forwards, but the initial letter of each word spells the first word, the second letter of
each word spells the second word, the third letter of each word spells the third word and
so for the other two words. It was billed as “The World’s Most Amazing Sentence.” They
translated it as ”God, the Creator, rules the motion of the Universe,” which will not hold
up to scrutiny.

Jagor, Hr., “Die Formel Sator Arepo,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie. Verhandlung der Berliner
Gesellschaft für Anthropologie 14 (1882), pp. 415.

A short notice suggesting a plausible translation of the famous formula. An inscription found
at the Chateau de Rochemaure on the Rhone: Sator opera tenet . . he translates as: le sémeur
tient son ouvrage, ou comme on sème on recolte.

Jerphanion, G.A. de, "A propos des nouveaux exemplaires trouvés à Pompeii, du carré magique
"Sator," par le R.P. Jerphanion," CRAI (1937), pp. 84-94.
 The discovery of two specimens of the square in Pompeii that could be reasonably
dated as earlier than A.D. 79, caused Jerphanion to recant his previous views. He
gives five reasons:

1) That it would be surprising if there had been Christians at Pompeii before the
destruction.
2) That if the square had originated among Christians of the first century, one
would expect the writing to be in Greek.
3) That A and O as a descrition of God passed into Christian parlance in the
Apocalypse whch hadn’t yet been written in A.D. 70.
4) That the intersecting arrangement of the double pater noster would require the
cross to have become a Chrisian symbol by the date of the composition, thought it
is not found earlier than the Epistle of Barnabas for which Jerphanion accepts a
Hadrianic date.
5) That the use of a crux dissimulata as an esoteric sign of Christianity is again a
practice otherwise unknown before the second century.

Jerphanion, Guillaume de, "La formule magique: Sator Arepo ou Rotas Opera. Vieilles théories
et faits nouveaux," Recherches de science réligieuse, 25 (1935), pp. 188-225.

Reviewed in in Analecta Bollandiana 53 3/4 (1935), pp. 382 -385 by H.D.

Jerphanion discusses the sator rebus as it is found in the Roman world - - from the
inscriptions at Dura Europas, Cirencester. etc. and discusses its possible Gallic origin. He
compares it to various palindromes. There is a section on the sator formula among the
Copts and the Ethiopians, and in the Byzantine world in Cappadocia. In these traditions,
the square is sometimes linked to the names of the Magi and the fives nails of the cross
(Griffith, no. 751) Jerphanion believes these names were derived from the square and not
the square from the names. A good inventory of the various anagrams that can be made
from the letters in the square.

Jerphanion, Guillaume de, "Du nouveau sur la Formule magique: Rotas Opera (et non SATOR
AREPO)," Recherches de science religieuse, 27 (1937), pp. 326-35.

Its original Jewish meaning was related to a passage in Ezekiel but then changed (at a
time still unknown) by Christians to the symbolism of the cross and the Alpha-Omega.

Jerphanion, Guillaume de, Une Nouvelle Province de l’Art Byzantin: Les Églises Rupestres de
Cappadoce, Haut Commissariat de la République Française en Syrie et au Liban. Services
des Antiquités et des Beaux Arts. Bibliothèque Archéologique et Historique. Tome VI.
Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geunthner, 1934.

I.78 and 158 and plate 38, figure no. 1. Shows a representation of the nativity from a
church in Cappadocia which dates to the time of the Emperor Constatine VII
Porphyrogenitus (913-959).
 In Cappadocia, the words of the sator- formula became the names of the shepherds of the
Nativity. In the rupestral churches of the Ürgüp region there are several nativity scenes,
classifiable roughly into two categories. An early group, ninth to eleventh centuries, of
frescoes with strong eastern influence, and a later group, dating from the eleventh
century, in which the paintings reveal a decided Byzantine influence. The words of the
formula occur primarily in the first group. In the Church of St. Eustathius, the shepherds
are named SATOR for the young man, AREPO for the old man, TENETO for the
musician. The words are placed next to the head in the oriental fashion so the intention
of the artist cannot be misunderstood.

At Toqale Kilissé, the young man is named AREPON and TENETON seems to designate
the musician while the old man is unidentified. (Vol. I, pt 1, 78 and pl. 38, figure 1; and
above Jerphanion, RecSciRel 25 (1935) p. 202, n. 35. In anther case the musician is
entitled PEREROTAS, a composite of opera and rotas. Vol. II, pt. 1, p. 155 and plate
152, fig. 2. Among thr second group of frescoes the shephers are usually unnamed. In one
case, however, only the musician is named and he is SATOR. (Vol. I, pt. 2, p. 411 and pl.
104, figure 3. Thus there is a definite link between the words of the Sator formula and
the shepherds of the Nativity but no tradition appears to exist connecting a specific
shepherd with a particular word of this formula.

Jerphanion, Guillaume de,”Osservazioni sull’origine del quadrato magico,” Rendiconti della

Pontificia Accademia di Archeologia 12 (1936), 401ff.

Jerphanion becomes an early agnostic over the pater noster solution to the sator puzzle.

Karner, K., "Die Sator-Inschrift von Aquincum," Theologische Literaturzeitung 82 (1957), pp.
391-394.

Karner discusses the sator inscription found at Aquincum (Szilagi, no. 817). At the time of
its discovery, it was the second oldest example of the formula found.

Kepartov, Jana -- "Rotas opera - neue Funde und Theorien", Listy filologick 114 (1991), pp. 88-
92.

Kilian, Werner, "Gedanken zum Grossen Palindrome," Forschungen und Fortschritte 32 (1958),
pp. 272-277.

Kilian is not interested in translating the five words of the square. Rather he is interested in
the use of the letters to form the pater noster anagram. He rearranges the pater nosters in
endless forms, proving nothing, but is convinced of the genius of the author in creating this
palindrome that bonded together the cognoscenti while warding off their enemies.

Köhler, Reinhold, “Sator-Arepo-Formel,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 13 (1881), p. 301-306 and

Kleine Schriften 3, p. 564.
 In the latter article he collects many of the early examples of the sator square. He discusses
one scratched on the marble above the chapel of St. Laurent in Rochemaure, France, one in
Cirencester, England (Atkinson, no. 686), on the mosaic pavement of a church in Pieve
Terzagni from the end of the eleventh century, in an Oxford Latin Ms. of the thirteenth
century; in a Greek manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris; in the marginalia of a
Munich manuscript. In fifteenth century writing (du Choul, no. 706). It was used to
extinguish fires and to protect against the bite of mad dogs. It was used by the natives of
northern Brazil to protect against and heal snake bites.

Köhler does not attempt to interpret the meanings of the words, but concludes that with the
exception of arepo, which has not been satisfactorily explained, they are all well-known
Latin words.

Kolberg, Verhandlung der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, 1887, p. 69.

He regards the letters of the Sator acrostic as abbreviations of Latin words. He refers
to the Nuremberg meal or plate described in Verhandlung der Berliner Gesellschaft
für Anthropologie, 1883 p. 354 and interprets it as a paten or communion plate. On
the outer circle are the words: + Deo Honorem + Et Patria + Liberationem + Mentem
Sanctam + Spontaneam, and the sator acrostic, wich he arranges rather arbitrarily as
follows:

SAT ORARE
POTENter ET OPERAre
RatiO (oder auch ReligiO) TuA Sit .

He interprets: Viel beten

Und kräftig arbeiten
Das sei Deine Lebensweise (oder Religion)

He believes it is an ancient rule of the Benedictines.

Kraeling, C. H., "The Sator Acrostic," Crozer Quarterly 22 (1945), pp. 28-38.

He disputes Grosser’s pater noster solution for the reversible, four-way acrostic. It
originated as a word game, but once it was established as a magic formula, its perpetuation in
Christian circles is readily explicable without the hypothesis of Christian origin.

Krall, V., "Sator Areto Tenet Opera," Mitteilungen aus der Sammlung der Papyrus Erherzog
Rainer 5 (Wien, 1889), pp. 99-122.

Discusses a Greek version of the Sator-Arepo square found on a Coptic papyrus (kopt.
Perg. Nr. 2434-2436).

Krall, V., "Koptische Amulette," Mitteilungen aus der Sammlung der Papyrus Erherzog Rainer
5 (Wien, 1882), pp. 115ff.
 Coptic amulette with the sator rebus on it.

Last, Hugh, "The Rotas Sator Square: Present Position and Future Prospects," Journal of
Theological Studies n.s. 3 (1952), pp. 92-97.

A 1,500 word article on the present state of opinion (in 1952) on the famous 25-letter
square by a respected classicist. He suggests having scholars compose twenty-five letter
squares of the Sator-Rotas variety and see how many of them can in fact be made with
Latin words. This would help to determine the degree of probability that Cumont was
right when he described the square as “la plus ancienne inscription chrétienne connue et
la premiere qui établisse l’existence d’un christianisme latin.”

Last, Hugh, Review of Jerome Carcopino, Études d’Histoire Chrétienne. Le Christianisme Secret
du Carré Magique: Les Fouilles de Saint-Pierre et la Tradition, Paris: Albin Michel,
1953, in Journal of Roman Studies 44 (1954) pp. 112-115.

Last does not accept the pater noster solution as does Carcopino.

Leclercq, H., "Sator Arepo," Dictionnaire d'Archéologie Chrétienne et de Liturgie, Paris:

Letouzey et Ané, Vol. 15 (1950), col. 913-915.

After a discussion of some of the more popular interpretations, Leclercq traces the origin of
the rebus to folklore and doubts its connection with either Hebraic or Christian symbolism.

Letonnelier, G., "Une interprétation du carré magique SATOR AREPO," Bulletin Archéologique
du Comité des Travaux Historiques (1951-1952), pp. 168-69.

Letonnelier suggests some of the words are actually abbreviations. His reading: Sat Orare
Poten(tia) et Oper(a) A Rota S(ervant). “Prier beaucoup est notre force, et son effet préserve
(ou sauve) de la roue.” Prayer is our strength and will save us from the wheel (of fate?). The
formula is thus a Christian call to prayer.

Letonnelier, G., “Note sur l’inscription de Valbonnais,” Cahier d’histoire et d’archéologie

(Nîmes), no. 13, 1932, pp. 291-299.

A medieval French example of the rotas-opera formula. It was inscribed long after anyone
comprehended the meaning, but was used as a magical talisman.

Ludof, Hiob, Ad Historiam Aethiopicam Commentarius, Osnabrück: Biblio Verlag, 1982 reprint
of the 1694 edition, p. 351.

In the eleventh century, the five words from the square were used in Abyssinia to denote
the five wounds of Christ. They are reported here as Sador, Aroda, Danad, Adera, Rodas,
acorruption of Sator, Arepo, Tenet, Opera, Rotas - the text of which they had probably
never seen. The Ethiopian text is included.
McBryde, J.M. Jr., “ The Sator-Acrostic," Modern Language Notes 22 (1907), pp. 245-249.

McBryde discusses much of the earlier German literature on the magical and curative
powers of the formula, and concludes that the sator square is related to the Jewish
Kabbalah, but at the same time is also related to magic squares where letters and words
are reduced to numbers with definite fixed values. These are older than the Kabbalah and
may be traced back through the Pythagorean philosophy to ancient Babylon.

He adds many examples that he found in manuscripts but had been previously
unublished.

Maresch, Gustav, “Zur Sator-Formel," Commentationes Vindobonenses, Vienna 1 (1935), pp.

94-97.

Rather than the pater noster solution, he prefers an early version with Pater-Soter and a
gnostic interpretation.

Markovich, Miroslav, “Sator Arepo = Georgos Harpon (Knoyphi) Harpos,” [Greek Arpo(cra),
Harpo(crates),” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 50 (1983), pp. 155-171.

Markovich attacks the interpretation advanced by Hommel and defended by Hoffman in

Pauly-Wissowa that interprets the square as eminating from a Stoic-Pythagorean setting.
Marcovich gives one of the best clues to the meaning of the word arepo. The author
believes it is a Latinized nickname for the god of good luck in Graeco-Roman Egypt - -
Harpon (Knuphi). The translation of the charm would be: “The sower Horus/Harpocrates
checks, toils, and tortures.

Marques-Rivière, Jean, Amulettes, Talismans et Pentacles dans les Traditions Orientales et

Occidentales, Paris: Payot, 1938, pp. 167-70.

Cites examples from Cappadocia where the words of the formula are connected with the
names of the shepherds who worshipped the infant Jesus at the Nativity.

Mestorf, J., Zeitschrift für Ethnologie. Verhandlung der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie,
14 (1882), p. 555-558.

Mestorf describes a cup of “oriental workmanship” found on the island of Gotland. It has
Runic letters engraved upon it which spell out the sator-acrostic, together with the five-
pointed star or wizard pentagram. The cup is said to date to the fourteenth century.

Metzger, Bruce M., "Rotas-Sator Square," (supplement), Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of

Religious Knowledge, Grand Rapids, Mi, 1955, vol. 2, p. 983.

A short summary of the theories on the sator square with a bibliography almost as long
as the entry.
Meysing, J., "Introduction à la numérologie biblique. Le diagramme Sator Arepo," Revue des
Science Religieuse 40 (1966), pp. 321-52.

A planetary, astrological, cosmological interpretation of the famous square. Rarely has so

much been made of so little.

Moeller, Walter O., The Mithraic Origin and Meanings of the Rotas-Sator Square, Leiden: E. J.
Brill, 1973, 53 pp., plates.

Moeller believes that SATOR was Saturn and that the Mithraic triad is present: Saturnus-
Aion, Sol Invictus and Mithra. The square transmitted a direct message concerning sowing
and reaping. There are indications of a connection between the square and the Apocalypse of
St. John. And finally, the square is a number square from which many numbers can be
calculated including 666. Not convincing, but contains an excellent bibliography.

Omedeo, A., "La croce d'Ercolano e il culto preconstantiniano della croce," La Critica 38 (1940)
46, n. 3

A Mithraic interpretation of the square. He bases his interpretation on a graffito containing

the square found in the Pompeian palaestra which he believes suggests a Mithraic origin
because the area was used for military exercises for the Iuvenes. For a Mithraic interpreation
based on other grounds, see Walter O. Moeller, The Mithraic Origin and Meanings of the
Rotas-Sator Square, (no. 793).

Ooteghem, J. van, "Le Rébus Sator," Études Classiques 3 (1934), pp. 557-558.

A short descriptions of the square, its history and a discussion of other scholars’ work. He
accepts the Christian interpretationand rejects Suys (no. 816).

Orcibal, Jean, "Dei agricultura': Le carré magique Sator Arepo, sa valeur et son origine," Revue
d'Histoire des Religions 146 (1954), pp. 51-66.

Orcibal concentrates on the concept of Christ as the Sower and the meaning of Sator. He
takes examples from the Gospels and Christian writers. He believes it was used for its
magical powers long before it was Christian. He discusses the mathematical possibilities of
the pater noster solution being just chance. He feels that the magic which pagans saw in the
square rested purely on the symmetry of the words. One might find the formula in a
collection of pagan magical papyri had Diocletian not had such magical papyri burned.

Palma, J., “Une curieuse inscription,” L’Intermédiaire des Chercheurs et Curieux 3, 57 (1866),
pp. 476-477.

The author takes arepo to be a proper name, that of the “sower,” and produced: “An
indefatigable sower, the worker Arepo, holds the works, the wheels.” He then interpreted the
translation to mean “God, the creator, holds in his hand both his vases of clay known by the
 name of man and all the force of the round machine.” This solution required the interpolation
of additional letters to derive a meaning.

Pennington, Anne E., “South Slavs in Malta,” in Byzance et les Slavs. Études de civilisation.
Mélanges Ivan Dujcev, Paris, 1979, pp. 333-5.

A previously unpublished Serbian version of the square. It was used as the antidote to the
bite of a mad dog (p. 334, n. 3).

Pfeiffer, Herbert -- "Bemerkungen zur Form des Satorquadrats", Gymnasium 93 (1986), pp. 370-
372.

Picard, Charles, "Sur le carré magique à l'“Eglise odorante” (Kokar Kilise, Cappadoce," Revue
Archéologique 1 (1965), pp. 101ff.

In the region of Hasan Dagi in Cappadocia (Turkey), two French scholars found on the wall
of a church a series of musicians next to a figure being baptised. Underneath appears the
enigmatic sator formula. The figures are wearing pointed Phrygian caps and oriental dress.
Picard, of course, accepts a Christian interpretation of the square.

Polge, H., "La fausse énigme du carré magique," Revue d'Histoire des Religions 175 (1969), pp.
155-163

Polge (and Gunn, (no. 755) were among the first to use the computer to solve the sator-arepo
mystery. He calls the sator square “une construction phraséomorphe anacyclique à quadruple
entrée.” He has the computer calculate the 625 applicable combinations of the 25 letters of
the square and concludes that none of the combinations is linguistically viable. He concludes
that Arepo is “un anthroponyme imaginaire,” “un artifice lexicale,” “une option irrationelle.”
Any attempt to link it to a person or thing in the Graeco-Roman world is fruitless.

Porter, J. Hampden, “Folklore of the Mountain Whites of the Alleghenies,” Journal of American
Folklore 7 (1894), pp. 105-117.

On p. 113 he describes an example of the sator rebus he found that was used as a talisman. It
was writtten on parchment, in ink that was “dim with age” and was surmounted by an
indistinct device that looked like an equilateral triangle inscribed in a circle. It was used for
”almost everything to carry with you to be safe any place or to keep in your house to keep it
from burning down or stop fits or prevent miscarriage. If convulsions occur in consequence
of injuries, no benefit follows the use of this remedy, but a copy of the formula swallowed or
taken in the form of an infusion will certainly prevent a mad dog’s bite from causing
hydrophobia, and the same methods of administration prove effectual in cases of continued
fever.”

Ricci, V., "Sator Arepo," Catholic Encyclopedia New York: The Encyclopedia Press, Inc., 1917,
p. 1098.
 Ricci believes a possible transliteration is: sator, the sower; arepo, with his plow, tenet,
holds; opera, with purpose; rotas, the wheels. The five words can be read consecutively
either horizontally or perpendicularly; and while the disposition of the words varied in both
East and West during the Middle Ages, the device was traced to the fourth century A.D. and
considered of Christian origin.

Rostovtzeff, M.I., The Excavations at Dura-Europus: Preliminary Report of the Fifth Season,
New Haven, 1934, pp. 159-161; and op. cit. Sixth Season, New Haven, 1936, p. 482-6.

The original excavation reports for the discovery of the four examples of the sator formula
found in the Temple of Artemis Azzanathcona at Dura-Europas, the Syria city that for the
last years of its existence (ca. A.D. 165-256) was an important fortress in the Roman military
defenses against Parthia and then Sassanian Persia. The camp of the Romans was located in
the section of the city in which the formula inscriptions were found. It is apparent that the
rooms of the temple were taken over by the military probably at the beginning of the third
century when the garrison was considerably increased by local Semitic recruits.

A number of the inscriptions are of cabbalistic character: alphabets, magic signs and
symbols, pentagrams, evil eyes, a magic animal, and several hermetic texts in mystic
alphabets. (see p. 482). The room in which the sator-formulae were found also contained a
large number of graffiti relating to military affairs and indicate that it was a clerical office for
the garrison. Many of the inscriptions are Latin written in Greek alphabet. Two of the three
sator- formulae substitute Greek letters for the Latin, the earliest example of this common
practice.

The terminus ante quem of the Dura examples seems to be fixed again by the destruction of
the city c. A.D. 256 by the second Sassanian attack. They massacred and carried away its
inhabitants into slavery. The terminus post quem is harder to establish, but if the sator-
formulae are associated with the military inscriptions, which seems plausible, then the date
would be around A.D. 200. The author also assumes that the inscriber or inscribers of the
Dura formulae were members of the Roman military more familiar with Greek than Latin,
probably local recruits.

Rostovtzeff, M. I., "Il rebus Sator," Annali della Reale Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa,
Lettere, Storia e Filosofia, Ser. 2, Vol. 3, fasc. 1 (1934), pp. 103-105.

Rostovtzeff uncovers two more examples of the SATOR rebus (see Carcopino, nos. 700-
703). These are graffiti scratched by soldiers of the two auxiliary cohorts stationed at Dura
Europas - the II Ulpia and the XX Palmyrenorum into the wall off the cortile of the Temple
of Azzanathcona. Since Dura was abandoned in A.D. 256, we now have examples dating
before the middle of the third century.

Since the vast majority of the SATOR-rebus inscriptions are in Latin, Rostovtzeff believes
they originated in the West, possibly in Gaul. These inscriptions support the idea that the
rebus was invented much earlier than the fourth century. He follows Grosser (no. 752) in
 believing they began during the great persecutions. (J. Dölger, Antike und Christentum, III
(1932), p. 278 disagrees).

Cf. , F. Haverfield, Ephemeris Epigraphica 9, no. 1001

R. Collingwood, The Archaeology of Roman Britain, p. 176, fig. 174.

Ryan, W.F., “Solomon, Sator, Acrostics, and Leo the Wise in Russia,” Oxford Slavonic Papers,
n.s. 19 ( (1986), pp. 46--61.

Ryan has found cyrillic examples of the sator formula in Russian manuscripts where it
was usually titled “Seal of King Solomon the Wise.” Russian scholars have not discussed
the sator square in the context of the more general history of the subject, and there are
some aspects of it which Ryan thinks deserve comment. In particular, its possible Jewish
connections, its associations with divinatory, computistic and ‘Solomonic’ texts, and the
acrostic text ascribed to Leo the Wise which goes with some specimens. Ryan lists
twenty-nine examples of the Russian sator square known to him. Illustrated.

Sabbadini, R., Rivista di Filologia 47 (1919), p. 34.

Jesus as sower or Sator as God the creator.

Schmöger, A., Katholische Kirchenzeitung (Salzburg), no. 21 of May 24, 1917, p. 173.

This is the earliest attempt to interpret sator as Jesus the Sower (Matthew 13:3; Mark
4:3; Luke 8:5), or as God the Creator.

Schneider, Wolfgang Christian, “Sator Opera Tenet - Poros Aras. “Der Sämann erhält die Werke
- Du aber pflügst” Eine Deutung des Sator-Quadrats,” Castrum Peregrini 189/90 ( (1989),
pp. 101-124.

Schneider believes the sator square is the key to an important philosophical concept that
joins the tradition of Etruscan/Roman religion and philosophy to the Stoic and Academic
Greek traditions of philosophy.

Schulenberg, W. von, “Formel ‘Sator Arepo’,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, (Organ der
Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte) 13
(1881), p. 85-86.

Tells the 16th century story of several women with eye maladies who had them cured by
wearing a parchment around their neck that had thesator square written on it. The sator
square was also found on a lead tablet that was nailed to the oldest house in Pösneck to
protect it from fire.

Schulenberg, W. von Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, (Organ der Berliner Gesellschaft für
Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte) (1881), p. 167.
 An attempt to translate arepo as “Areben.”

Schwartz, J., " À propos du carré SATOR chez les Éthiopiens," Annales d'Éthiopie 2 (1957), pp.
219-223.

Schwartz discusses a graffito found at Touna el-Gebel on the wall of a funerary

monument from Hermopolis. It is the sator rebus but in Coptic with a few changes in
consonants due to the language difference. He relates the words to the names of the five
nails of the cross and the use of these names and symbols in coptic amulets.

Schwartz, Paul, “Sator arepo Formel,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, (Organ der Berliner
Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte) 13 (1881), pp. 131-132.

Schwartz was the Gymnasiallehrer in Salzwedel and reports on an example of the sator
formula being used as a cure for dogbites.

Seligman, Dr. S., "Die Satorformel," Hessische Blatter für Volkskunde 13(1914), pp. 154-183.

A complete study of the sator rebus. The oldest one found was patently Christian in
character, found in Asia Minor, originating perhaps in Egypt, and dating to the fifth
century. He believes the inventor of the magic forumula wanted to join the traditional
names of the three kings of the Orient - Ator, Sator and Peratoras in the form of two
squares, one inserted into the other, a very recherche explanation that the discovery in
Pompeii (Sundwall, no. 815) completely refutes.

He gives an interesting survey of the German examples of the formula. The majority of
these are to be found on medals and plaques generally accompanied by epithets of God.
These are in Latin, Hebrew and pseudo-Hebrew. One in the numismatic collection of
Gotha is a silver medallion on which the formula is encircled with the words Saraot
(Sabaot), Emanuel, Soter, Helian, Usion, Tetragrammaton, Onagia and Ealuaet. On the
reverse is a heart in which is engraved Javneh and Schadai in Hebrew and INRI.
Emerging from the heart are the hands and feet of Christ, marked with wounds, arranged
in a manner suggestive of a cross. Encompassing these are Adonai, Eloy, Eloah, Elohim,
Ehohrah, Seday and Zebaot.

Sheldon, Rose Mary, “The Sator Rebus: An Unsolved Cryptogram,” Cryptologia 27, 3 (July,
2003), pp. 233-287.

Stegemann, Victor, “Die Koptischen Zaubertexte der Sammlung Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer in
Wien,” Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften. Sitzungsberichte. Philosophisch-
historische klasse 1(1933-34), pp. 26, 74-75.

An example of the sator square in Coptic of the Sa’idic dialect, dated by its orthography
to the sixth of seventh centuries. It is preceded by three crosses.

Also V. Krall (no. 778).

Sundwall, John, "L'enigmatica inscriziones ROTAS in Pompeii," Acta Academiae Aboensis
Humaniora XV, 5 Abo, (1945 ), pp. 3-17.

Another example of the famous sator rebus was found during the 1935-1939 excavations
in Pompeii in the portico of the large palaestra near the amphitheater. The inscriptions
from the palaestra date before the year A.D. 63 when the palaestra was partially
destroyed by an earthquake. Both students at the palaestra and spectators inscribed
dozens of "enthusiastic greetings" and in this case, a protective symbol to a Christian.
Sundwall is one of the few who suggests a pagan interpretation of the symbol. He
believes it is Orphic.

#852 Friedman Collection; 852.1 English translation.

Suys, E., "La formule SATOR est-elle chrétienne?," Études classiques 4 (1935), pp. 291-294.

Suys discusses the formula and debates whether it is Christian or pagan, and whether its
origin is Gallic and whether it was used by Christians during a Roman persecution. He
was one of the first writers to reject the widely-accepted pater noster solution to the
square.

Szilagi, J., “Ein Ziegelstein mit Zauberformel aus dem Palast des Statthalters in Aquincum,”
Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 2 (1954), pp. 305-310 = Année
Epigraphique (1956) no. 63.

On the square found at Aquincum on a roof tile from the villa publica , the residence of
the imperial governor of Pannonia Inferior. The inscription contains the Roma tibi sub(ito
motibus ibit amor) palindrome, and the sator square in the Rotas, Opera, Tenet, Arepo,
Sator version.

Commentary in German and Russian.

Treichel, A., “Das Tolltäfelchen aus Wahlendorf,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie. Verhandlung der
Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie 12 (1880) , pp. 42-47.

Brief communication in which the author describes a curious Tolltafel or small wooden
tablet containing the sator formula, and used as a charm against the bite of a mad dog or
other rabid animal. He can find no translation for Arepo and so treats it as a proper name.
The translation is “Der Säemann Arepo hält mit Mühe die Räder. (The Shaman, with
effort, holds the wheels). Later in the same issue (p. 215) he reports the discovery of
another little tablet, inscribed with an acrostic containing several letters of the sator
formula, but including other letters in different order.

Treichel, A., “Tolltafel aus Jeseritz,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie. Verhandlung der Berliner
Gesellschaft für Anthropologie 12 (1880) , pp. 215-217.
 An inscription ona tolltafel (charm against rabid dog bites) with a very garbled version of
the sator square found in Jeseritz.

Treichel, A., “Nachträge über die Tolltäfelchen,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie. (Organ der Berliner
Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte) 12 (1880 ), pp. 276-284.

Treichel suggests another interpretation. Sator = Father, Nourisher, Supporter. Rotas =

Wheel of fate. Hence, “Der gütige Vater hält mit Mühe auf das verderbliche Rollen der
Schicksalräder.” (With effort, the kind father holds on to the ruinous rolling wheels of
fate). He still finds, however, no satisfactory explanation for the word arepo.

He cites examples of the use of the sator acrostic to cure toothaches. The letters are
supposed to be written in butter or on a piece of bread and butter that is then to be eaten.
The idea is to swallow the magic words so that they may expel the sickness. Instances are
given where the acrostic was used to extinguish fires.

Treichel, A., “Sator Arepo Formel und Tollholz,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, (Organ der
Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte) 13 (1881), pp.
162-167.

Treichel refers to an article by Frischbier on “ Hexenspruch und Zauberbann,” (Berlin,

1870) who gives an imperfect acrostic, apparently a corruption of the sator-acrostic,
which reads thus:

NATOR
AUTNO
TERUT
AUTNO
ROTUR

Treichel, A., “Nachträge zu den Tolltafeln und zur Satorformel,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie.
(Organ der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte) 13
(1881), pp. 258-260.

Albrecht Dürer’s famous “Melancholie” shows a figure holding a tablet with numbers.
Some believe the numbers can be related to the sator formula.

Treichel also relates stories about tolltafeln as rabies cures. One baked a rye flour
“cookie” that contained pieces of the heart, liver and spleen of the dog that had bitten
someone (and was now presumably dead). The sator square was pressed on the outsde of
the cookie. The bitten person ate the cookie, but just to be sure, the wound was also
cauterized.

Treichel, A., “Zur Satorformel und Tolltafel,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, (Organ der Berliner
Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte) 13 (1881), pp. 306-307.
 Treichel reports examples of the sator formula being used to cure the bite of a rabid dog.

Treichel, A., “Beiträge zur Satorformel und zur Tolltafel,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 14
(1882), p. 264.

The sator square was used as a talisman against rabies. Wooden molds were made out of
two pieces of pear wood carved like castinets. Dough was squeezed between them and
the resultant cookie was baked. One piece was fed to the bitten person and one to the dog
as a cure against rabies.

Treichel, A., “Nachtrag zur Satorformel,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 15 (1883), pp. 354-
55.

An example of the sator rebus that appears in the middle of an elaborate series of
concentric circles with Christian inscriptions. It is in the German National Museum in
Munich.

Treichel, A., Zeitschrift für Ethnologie. (Organ der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie,
Ethnologie und Urgeschichte) (1884), p. 66-70.

The author considers a Celtic interpretation of the formula .

Treichel, A., Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, (Organ der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie,
Ethnologie und Urgeschichte) 18 (1886), p. 349.

Treichel suggests the god Saturn for SATOR and takes ROTAS to refer to the wheels of
the sun chariot, translating: “Saturnus m¨hevoll die Räder (das Sonnenrad) lenkt.” For
Arepo he suggests a derivation from the Finnish Aurinko, die Sonne.

Treichel, A., “Satorformel,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 19 (1887) pp. 69-74.

A series of examples of the sator square in different contexts. One use involves taking a
copy of the square and adding various herbs and marine plants, then sealing them in a
leather bag and wearing them around the neck as a cure for vertigo.

Ussani, Vincenzo, "Per un esemplare cassinese di 'Rotas Opera’," Studi Medievali n.s. 16
(1943), pp. 237-241.

Ussani discusses three medieval examples of the sator square. One is from Codex 384
from Monte Cassino dating to the 9th or 10th century, one was found inscribed in the
church of San Pietro all’Oratorio di Capestrano, and the third is written in the margin of a
work entitled Versus de cavenda Venere et vino found in Codex I.4 of the Capitolare di
Modena. There are illustrations of all three.

Valentiner, Theodor, "Arepo, "Römische Mitteilungen. Deutsches Achaeologischen Instituts,

Rom, 57 (1942), pp. 250.
 Proposes new explanation of the word arepo with the argument that it might be an
"acrostic," that is a summary of the first letters of a line of words "A r(rerum)
e(xtremarum) p(rincipio) o(mni). The meaning of the rotas formula would be: "The
Creator from the very beginning to the last moment of eternity holds (in his hand) the
celestial movement (of the stars) and events." Rejected by Wendell (no. 836).

Vendryès, Joseph, “Une hypothèse sur le carré magique," Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des
Inscriptions et des Belles-Lettres (1953), pp. 198-208.

Vendryes accepts a Christian interpretation of the square. He then goes on to discuss the
word arepo which he believes is a Celtic adverb and the square is therefore Gallo-
Roman.

Veyne, Paul, "Le carré Sator ou beaucoup de bruit pour rien," Bulletin de l'Association
Guillaume Budé, 4th series, (1968), pp. 426-60.

In a somewhat over-argued but perceptive article, Veyne applies the theory of

probablility to prove that the anagrams drawn from the square are posteriori events and
are therefore in no way remarkable. The square is purely a palindrome. For discussion
see Moeller (no. 793), p. 37, n. 1.

Wehling-Schücking, H., Zum Deutproblem der Sator-Inschrift," Album philologicum voor Th.
Baader, Tilburg, 1939, pp. 197ff.

A fanciful explanation that treats the central N as the abbreviation for Nazarenus. He
follows Cumont and Jerphanion in thinking the Pompeian squares are Jewish.

Word magic, alphabetic acrostics, and gematria, by which a numerical value was ascribed
to individual letters of a word, were very important in Jewish exorcism, cosmogonic
theories, and the symbolic representation of divine powers. On this, see M. Simon,
“Versus Israel,” Bibl. des écoles française d’Athenes et de Rome, fasc 166, Paris, 1948,
pp. 394-431.

Welz, Ed. von., "Sator Arepo," Societas Latina 5 (1937), pp. 55ff.

Discusses the anagrams that came be made from the letters of the sator square.

Weinreich, O., “Zweifel an der Richtigkeit der Lösung unmöglich,” Gnomon 6 (1930),
pp. 365-367.

Review of Grosser’s article.

Wendel , C., "Das Rotas-Quadrat in Pompeji," Zeitschrift für neuetestamentlische Wissenschaft

40 (1941), pp. 138-51.
 Tries to substantiate the theory of the pater noster, stating that the magic formula of the
Pompeian square is explained as an expression of faith of the masses in spirits and also of
the faith of the new Christian community, faith of a different nature from that of the
Apologists and the Apostolic Fathers. Decisively refutes Valentiner's acrostic theory. He
includes a detailed bibliography.

Wescher, C., “Note sur l’Interprétation d’une inscription {Provenant de Rochemaure (Ardèche),”
Bulletin des Antiquitées de France 1874, p. 153.

The sator formula was found in a walled-up section of the chapel of Saint-Laurent in
Rochemaure, Ardèche. Wescher uses the Byzantine manuscripts’ hypothetical Greek
equivalents of the words and comes up with the solution: “The sower is at the plough; the
work (of plowing) occupies the wheels.”

Wulff, Oscar and Volbach, W.F., (eds.), Die Altchristlische und Mittelalterlischen
Byzantinischen und Italienischen Bildwerke (Könglische Museen zu Berlin,
“Beschreibung der Bildwerke der Christlischen Epoche,” 3 Band; Berlin: Walter de
Gruyter & Co., 1909. I, 317 no. 1669.

An example of the sator square from Cappadocia dated by the author to the fourth or
fifth century A.D. It has definite Christian associations: the fish and the formula IC + XC.
There is some question whether the dating is accurate for this bronze amulet, since the
miniscule pi in the Greek transliteration of arepo and opera is rendered as an omega
with a line above it and the tau in two of the four times it occurs in the formula, is
written as a 7. According to leading authorities on the alphabet, these forms of the letters
were not used until the ninth century and the twelfth and fourteenth centuries,
respectively.

See: David Diringer, The Alphabet, a Key to the History of Mankind, (no. 612) p. 457,
columns 8 and 10 of table. If we accept Bodman’s objections (no. 696, p. 134), then the
earliest Christian use of the formula, indicated by associated formulae, must be the
Coptic examples of the sixth to the eighth centuries.

Zatzman, V., "Die Sator-formel und ihre Lösung," Hessische Blätter für Volkskunde 24 (1925),
pp. 98-105.

Sees the square as an apotropaic formula against the devil. The acrostic should read Satan
Adama Tabat Amada Natas. He believes the original formula was Hebraic/Aramaic.

Online Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sator_Square

http://finding-palindromes.blogspot.com/2012/06/sator-square.html