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Topic: Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas (Read 4127 times) |
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Leo Broukhis
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Posts: 459
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Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas
« on: Sep 5th, 2004, 12:58pm » |
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Many of you are probably familiar with the magic square
SATOR
AREPO
TENET
OPERA
ROTAS
which can be read vertically or horizontally starting from the top left or the bottom right corner. (It can be loosely translated as "Farmer Arepo holds the wheelworks" and construed as a clever advertisement of the Arepo's wheel shop - it remains the same when turned, just like a wheel.)
Do such 5x5 magic squares exist in other languages? I could not find any using google. Preferably with no proper names, but one plausibly sounding proper name would be fine.
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asterix
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Re: Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas
« Reply #1 on: Sep 5th, 2004, 5:01pm » |
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Does it have to make a lot of sense? The first I came up with is
BOARD
OGLER
ALONE
RENTS
DRESS
I'm sure there's some story that would make that make sense, but I don't think I want to hear it.
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Leo Broukhis
Senior Riddler
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Posts: 459
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Re: Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas
« Reply #2 on: Sep 5th, 2004, 6:24pm » |
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No, it does not have to have much sense, but it has to read the same from the bottom up. Note "or the bottom right corner" in my original post. Alas.
In other words, the quest is for a surjection* of {1 ... 9} to {A ... Z} such that 12345, 26784, 37973, 48762 and 54321 are words.
Or at least four of those, and the fifth one is pronounceable.
*) Not necessarily a one-to-one mapping; e.g. in the original square both 5 and 6 map to R. Naturally, the mapping must be non-trivial: all 5 words must be different.
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| « Last Edit: Sep 5th, 2004, 6:31pm by Leo Broukhis » |
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asterix
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Re: Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas
« Reply #3 on: Sep 6th, 2004, 8:50am » |
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So something like
DECAL
ELINA
CIVIC
ANILE
LACED
or
SERAL
ENOLA
ROTOR
ALONE
LARES
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T.C.Tighiliu
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Re: Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas
« Reply #4 on: Dec 21st, 2004, 12:47am » |
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Are you interested in the pure beauty of thease letter-games or anagrams or whatever they are or are you interested in what they mean ?
This perticular one is quite widespread both in space and time.
(it`s known from antiquity and from Scandinavia to Etiopia)
It is said to have something to do with curing rabies or even cancer , by somesort of analogy between the 5 words and the 5 nails that pierced Iisus`s body while on the Crux.
We also find references to water... and ofcourse to earth.
"the seeder controles the wheeles"...
The seed needs air and sun to grow.
It could be related to alchemy.. One needs all the four
elements to create the Great Opera.
Or "the seeder controls (or holds to himself) to producs of what he seeded".
Like "Rennes bles solis sacerdotibus".
A romanian manuscript form 1784 names it a "fortune for colds"
(fortune as in fortune-cooky).
You`re supposed to hold it tree days around your neck
and then trow it in a river.
Or to inscribe it on a pease ov metal (silver I belive) and to wash that pease with water and drink the water.
(in order to be cured)
In Nubia it is named "the names of the vers of Hrist".
Both in latin and in greek the phrase has 12 sylabels on 6 mesures, the last beeing an yamb.
In an Ethiopian prayer for the dead (Lefasa Sedek):
"...please , my son, by your wonderfull birth... and by the five nails on your croce, sador, `alador, danat, adera, rodas and between the repeated words..."
I am also aware of a russian phrase that sound the same way both ways:
Ia idu s mecem sudiia
because in russian the sound "ia" in marked by an "R" turned around:
R I D U S M E C E M S U D I R.
I hope i didn`t bore the hell out of you with my disertation ..
best wishes,
Tudor C. Tighiliu
P.S.:
Pardon my english if that is the case and
Merry Christmas!
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