The Sator Square, an enigma that crosses history

When faced with the discovery of a Latin epigraph of uncertain meaning, written in such a way as to be palindromic in every direction, there is already the perception of dealing with an enigma. A mystery that appears as much deeper as its outlines are blurred. As incomprehensible as the cultural and archaeological context to which it belongs. The Sator Square reveals an unprecedented complexity, seeming to transcend the limits of human understanding. Its signifier has emerged several times, in places and findings from different eras and peoples. From the excavations of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii to the cathedrals of the Middle Ages, the five words that compose the famous inscription represent a puzzle that, unchanged, has crossed history.

The mysterious Sator Square

The words that compose the Sator Square are impressed in history. Like a seal on an ancient letter, they reveal the existence of deep and immutable contents of the human soul, earlier anthropological mechanisms that resonate from the darkness. This is the only way to explain the wide spread of an apparently meaningless Latin phrase over the centuries. Perhaps the words SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS are part of a collective unconscious, as Jung suggested, but no one knows why. In any case, the words of the Sator keep re-emerging from the dust, in very different archaeological contexts.

They were present in a variety of Medieval places of worship: in Sermoneta, at Valvisciolo Abbey (13th century) as wall engravings; in a circular mosaic floor of the Collegiate Church of Sant’Orso in Aosta (12th century) and in the presbytery mosaic of the Church of San Giovanni Decollato in Pieve Terzagni (12th century); carved on a stone block outside the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Siena (13th century) and the Pieve San Giovanni in Campiglia Marittima (12th century), also on a wall in Brusaporto and so on. Most of these archaeological finds confirm the importance of the spatial arrangement of the words. They are aligned in an ideal square of twenty-five letters. The Sator Square is palindromic. It keeps its meaning intact in different directions of reading. So it is also called the “magic square”.

Hence, we could imagine the Sator Square to have Medieval origins. In fact, until the early 20th century archaeologists believed this to be the case, but at that time the enigma had yet to show its complexity.

The finding of the Sator in Pompeii

On 5 October 1925, the archaeologist and epigrapher Matteo della Corte examined for a long time an inscription in the atrium of the house of Publius Paquius Proculus¹, in the archaeological site of Pompeii. Between the cracks in the plaster, he identified the Sator Square. The fragment, which was mutilated, was almost forgotten until 12 November 1936. On that day, della Corte found the Sator engraved on the plaster covering of column LXI in the Palestra Grande². Someone engraved the words irregularly, curiously beginning with ROTAS. Matteo della Corte defined the discovery as a Pompeian laterculus, since it was recurrent among the epigraphic attestations³. He immediately perceived the playful character of the inscription, readable in various directions.

A terminus ante quem

The discovery changed everything we thought we knew about the Sator Square. This new finding backdated its origin by many centuries, making it possible to obtain a precise time estimate. The Palestra Grande dates back to the first century B.C. but was rebuilt after an earthquake in 62 A.D.. Pompeii Sator is certainly later than this date, and has a certain terminus ante quem. It can not be later than the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. that covered Pompeii until its modern rediscovery.

The Pompeian squares are not the only ones from before the Middle Ages. Some squares from the first centuries are known: the specimen engraved on a plaster of a house in Cirencester, the ancient Roman Corinium Donuborum (3rd century); those found at the archaeological site of Dura-Europos, in Syria (prior to 256, the year in which the Mesopotamian city was destroyed)⁴; the graphite engraving in the basement of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome (prior to the 5th century).

A complicated interpretation

A well-established practice in archaeological research is to identify an artefact by the context of its discovery. This practice is essential in order to understand its use, dating and proper meaning. If an Egyptian papyrus emerges from a burial chamber, we can deduce the meaning of the hieroglyphics. They could contain information about the deceased, the burial method or the Ancient Egyptians’ beliefs about the afterlife.

In the case of an epigraph, such as the Sator Square, we certainly expect its association to the historical moment in which it is made. However, the difficulty in interpreting the Pompeian laterculus derives precisely from the impossibility of reconstructing a temporal context, since it belongs to different periods. Rather, we wonder how it is possible that the Sator Square is rediscovered in Roman and early Christian archaeological sites as well as in Medieval ones; on cult buildings as well as on secular manuscripts; on the surface of vases and cups and at the same time on floor mosaics; in the form of an engraving or epigraph; and again: in square, rectangular and even circular form, as in the case of Aosta and Sermoneta.

 

Literal translations

All this has made it extremely complex to reconstruct a complete meaning shared by scholars. There is not even an unambiguous interpretation of the words that compose the Sator Square:

• SATOR is usually translated as the “sower“. In relation to the biblical references of the term, it could take on the meaning of “creator“. Scholars who support this thesis point out that a pre-Christian Sator has never been found. However, a pagan origin of the Sator cannot be ruled out, especially in relation to the Pompeian discoveries dated just before 79 A.D. The first to use the term “Sator” for a deity was Cicero as early as 44 B.C. In his translation of Sophocles’ Trachiniae, Hercules refers to his father Zeus as caelestum sator⁵.

• AREPO is a term of great interpretative complexity, found only in the Sator Square. Arepo is a hapax laegomenon and it is not possible to reconstruct its meaning by a philological comparison. Therefore, an attempt was made to identify its possible linguistic derivation from other Roman terms: it could originate from aripennis, a plot of land; it could be an abbreviation of the Areòpagus in Athens; in Gaul arepos was a chariot; the harpe was a sickle for agricultural purposes; finally, there is the possibility that the word arepo was an acronym, e.g. “Aeternus Rex Excelsus Pater Omnipotens”.

• TENET is the conjugation of the verb to hold or to keep, third-person singular.

• OPERA could indicate the ablatif “with care”, or the accusative plural of opus “the works”.

• ROTAS, plural accusative, is the “wheels” or the “celestial spheres”.

Suggested interpretations

On the basis of the semantic analysis of its terms, numerous literal and interpretative translations of the Sator Square were proposed⁶. A list of the main ones follows.

A cultural evolution

It is possible to understand the difficulty of interpreting the Sator Square, and its temporal dissonance of the findings, only from the perspective of cultural evolution. The epigraph has maintained its form for hundreds of years but has changed in its essence. There was certainly a reinterpretation through new significations and frames of meaning. Upon careful analysis, we can observe that the oldest findings of the Sator Square begin with the word ROTAS, whilst those from the Middle Ages with the word SATOR. This difference cannot be due to chance, but shows how the laterculum adapted according to the cultural contexts.

The Roman and early Christian ROTAS begins with a plural accusative and reveals a certain syntactic imprecision. This fact testifies that the arrangement of words was not so important as the ritual formula that resulted from them. The Medieval SATOR, on the other hand, places syntactic emphasis on the Sator, the sower, who in Christian exegesis is God. Therefore, we can better understand it in the cultural contexts of the finding, rather than to seek a unique meaning in history. To this end, it is appropriate to analyse separately the different moments of its findings, Roman-Paleochristian and Medieval, to which correspond different meanings. It is evident that the original significance of the Sator Square was lost over time. Christian theology overwritten and reinterpreted it, especially in the Middle Ages.

The origins of the Sator Square

There are two main archaeological theories about the origins of the Sator Square. The first argues that the square of Pompeii is associated to the pagan rites. The second, since there are no artifacts prior to Christ, attributes an early Christian origin, connected to the cult of the early catechumens.

The hypothesis of the pagan origins of the Sator Square

Although the oldest findings of the Sator Square are dated to the 1st century, it is not excluded that it has origins before the coming of Christianity. The inscription could be a pagan ritual or apotropaic formula. This would explain why the earliest examples of the magic square begin with rotas, indicating an extra-empirical efficacy independent of the sentence structure. The engraving of the Sator rediscovered in the basement of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, for example, is accompanied by the palindromic inscriptions Roma summus amor and Roma olim milo amor.

A possible invocation to Saturn

In the context of pagan cults, the Sator Square could be a sort of invocation to Saturn⁷. Saturn was, in Rome’s religion, the god connected with the knowledge of agriculture and the eternal regeneration of time. The Romans believed he ruled at the beginning of time, in a mythical Golden Age called Saturnia Tellus. The Romans ideally remembered this period as an era of peace and equality, in which there were no social differences. Every year, from December 17 to 23, they celebrated the Saturnalia. During these days the social order was subverted and masters served their slaves. This upheaval of social hierarchies allowed for the restoration of the lost moral order, marking a cyclical regeneration of time.

The Sator Square could have a pagan meaning. Rotas could be the cyclical change of time. Arepo would indicate the gladius falcatus, the sickle that is an attribute of Saturn, translated from Greek into Latin as harpe. Thus, the words of the Sator would be an invocation to Saturn. According to mythology, the god held the cyclical change of time and the knowledge of agriculture. Indeed, next to the Pompeii Sator in the Palestra Grande we find the inscriptions Sautran, an anagram of Saturnia (Saturn), and ano, perhaps referring to the terms annus (year) or anulus (cycle).

The early Christian hypothesis

Early Christian communities used the Sator Square. This certainty derives from the abundant evidence from early Christian archaeological sites. For example, in Dura Europos there was an important domus ecclesiae dating to the 3rd century. Here there were five specimens of the Sator. So, assuming that the Sator Square has pagan origins, this implies that, at a later time, catechumens adopted and reinterpreted. In fact, cultural overwriting was a widespread phenomenon: a large number of pagan rites were revisited in a Christian key. An example is the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, which became the day of Christ’s birth.

However, it is different to say that the Sator Square has early Christian origins. If this were the case, the term sator would already have the meaning of the biblical sower, a figure of Christ sowing the Word of God. The first Christians could not profess their faith openly, since they were the subject of ferocious persecution. Until the events of Constantine and his conversion, they had to pray in secret. Christ worship needed to make use of stratagems, anagrams and christograms. This is why the Sator Square could be a crux dissimulata:

The T in tenet would recall the shape of a cross like in the Tau sign.

Felix Grosser’s study

The research of F. Grosser supports the thesis of the early Christian origins of the Sator. The scholar, an evangelist pastor from Chemnitz, in 1926 proposed an anagram of the laterculus that gives the words PATER NOSTER⁹. According to Grosser, the remaining letters A, O, could represent the alpha and omega of the Book of Revelation¹⁰.

Criticism of Grosser’s analysis

The discovery of the Sator square in Pompeii raised some doubts about Grosser’s anagrammatic solution, since the writing of the Book of Revelation was probably later (last decade of the first century). Anyway, the symbolism of alpha and omega is also present in the book of the prophet Isaiah, albeit in different terms (“Who has performed these deeds? He who has called forth the generations since the beginning. I, the LORD, am the first, and with the last I will also be”¹¹. “I am the first and I am the last”¹²).

In addition, an anagram of twenty-five letters can create several sentences. Thus, Grosser’s analysis cannot be a reliable proof of the Christian origin of the Sator.

The Medieval Sator Square

The Sator Square, beginning with the word rotas, is common in the first centuries after Christ. Then it mysteriously disappears and is found again only from the 8th and 9th centuries. It is unclear whether this historical vacuum is due to a lack of findings or to the loss of meaning after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Instead, the Sator Square, in its Medieval guise, differs. It changes slightly in form, as it starts with the term sator and more rarely rotas, but mainly in its anthropological function.

In a ninth-century manuscript, preserved in the Capitular Library of Modena Cathedral¹³, it could have some relation to the theological conception of sin, since it follows a verse on the prohibition of drunkenness and fornication. Moreover, it is written in linear script, indicating a change of meaning in connection with the ancient ritual formula. For the same reason, in later centuries it appeared both in rectangular form in the Pieve San Giovanni in Campiglia Marittima and circular, for example in the Collegiate Church of Aosta and the Abbey of Valvisciolo.

The Sator Square and its liturgical function in the Middle Ages, the case of Pieve Terzagni

Most of the Medieval findings of the Sator Square are reused blocks, as in Brusaporto or at the Abbey of San Pietro ad Oratorium in Capestrano, where it is walled upside down. However, the few cases in which it is possible to reconstruct the original archaeological context suggest that it was reinterpreted according to the Christian theology of the time.

It is highly probable that the Sator Square took on some kind of liturgical-apotropaic function in the Middle Ages. In Pieve Terzagni, at the church of San Giovanni Decollato, it is at the center of a floor mosaic in the presbytery.

The presbytery has decorations with a symbolic representations of the Tetramorph and of the deacon Stephen, at which there was a mobile lectern. The faithful got there by walking on several figures of mythological and real animals, symbols of vices and sins. Hence, the palindrome probably indicated the placement of the priestly seat. The Sator Square was perhaps a sacred invocation, a sort of ritual liturgical-apotropaic formula that ideally turned the sin away, figuration of the evil. Its location among the four evangelists and near the lectern suggests that it had some relationship with the Holy Scriptures.

In Christian biblical exegesis the Word of God is the Merkavah: the Holy Scripture is like a chariot of fire that reaches all the corners of the Earth. The wheels of this chariot are driven by the Holy Spirit and accompanied by the Tetramorph, image of the four evangelists. In this sense, the Sator is an invocation to the Spirit of God: the sower who carefully holds the wheels of the chariot.

A sacred invocation to the Spirit of God?

Here are some clarifying biblical quotes:

2 At once I was caught up in spirit. A throne was there in heaven, and on the throne sat one […]

6 In front of the throne was something that resembled a sea of glass like crystal. In the center and around the throne, there were four living creatures covered with eyes in front and in back.

7 The first creature resembled a lion, the second was like a calf, the third had a face like that of a human being, and the fourth looked like an eagle in flight.

8 The four living creatures, each of them with six wings, were covered with eyes inside and out. Day and night they do not stop exclaiming:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come.

Book of Revelation 4, 1-11

5 Within it were figures resembling four living creatures that looked like this: their form was human, 6 but each had four faces and four wings, […].

10 Their faces were like this: each of the four had the face of a man, but on the right side was the face of a lion, and on the left side the face of an ox, and finally each had the face of an eagle.

20 Wherever the spirit wished to go, there the wheels went, and they were raised together with the living creatures; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

Book of Ezekiel, 1, 4-20:

The Sator Square at the Collegiate Church of Sant’Orso of Aosta

The discovery of the Sator Square in Aosta confirms the thesis of a liturgical-apotropaic invocation. Some mosaic remains from the first half of the 12th century, discovered in the presbytery of the Collegiate Churc of Sant’Orso, have revealed the presence of the palindromic phrase. Exceptionally, the Sator in Aosta is in circular form and surrounds the representation of Samson, symbol of Christ, who defeats the devil-lion.

An external circular band of the same mosaic contains an invitation to invoke God with reverence:

“+ INTERIUS DOMINI DOMUS HEC ORNATA DECENTER + QUERIT EOS QUI SEMPER EI PSALLANT REVERENTER”.

“This house of the Lord respectably adorned in its interior, welcomes who always sing to Him with veneration”.

From these words we deduce that invoking God turns away the evil, and this is expressed by the ritual meaning of the Sator.

Does the Sator Square have a meaning beyond the literal significance?

In conclusion, the Sator Square is an extraordinary archaeological mystery, still debated among the scholars. There is no definitive evidence to prove its Christian or pagan origin. Nevertheless, it was reinterpreted throughout the centuries, always being enriched with new uses and meanings. This has resulted in numerous attempts to find a logical solution, as well as theoretical speculations: from numerological-cabalistic analysis to those pertaining to alchemical occultism.

A careful point of view is to consider an amphibological meaning. The Sator Square could be designed to contain multiple keys to interpretation, which change depending on the observer. So, a farmer could read in it that “the sower, with the chariot, carefully holds the wheels“, but a a man with a higher level of knowledge could understand that “the creator keeps with care his own works“.

Probably in the Middle Ages, the magical palindrome assumed a function of liturgical and apotropaic invocation. For this reason, it is found in a parchment of Aurillac as a wish for a successful childbirth, or on the mosaic floors of Pieve Terzagni and Aosta to ward off the evil.

Samuele Corrente Naso

 

Notes

1. Matteo Della Corte, Notizie degli scavi, 1929. The house is located inside Regio I, Insula VII, Domus I. ↩︎
2. Matteo Della Corte, Rendiconti Accademia Pontificia, 1936; Notizie degli scavi, 1939. ↩︎
3. During the Bourbon archaeological excavations of the eighteenth century was found another Sator Square in Pompeii. It was transcribed by Miguel de Cira in his reports. The exemplary was found painted near the praedia of Giulia Felice. ↩︎
4. Yale University and the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters, The excavations at Dura-Europos, Preliminary report V (1934), 159, no. 481 and  Preliminary report VI (1936), 486, no. 809; Annali della R. Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, ser. 2, vol. 3 (1934). ↩︎
5. Marcus Tullius Cicero, De natura deorum; Tusculanae disputationes, 44-45 a.C. ↩︎
6. R. Cammilleri, Il quadrato magico. Un mistero che dura da duemila anni, Rizzoli, 2004. ↩︎
7. R. T. Ganiban, Virgilian Prophecy and the Reign of Jupiter, in Brill’s Companion to Valerius Flaccus, edito da Mark Heerink and Gesine Manuwald, Brill Academic Publishers, 2014. ↩︎
8. Dr. Vollmers Wörterbuch der Mythologie aller Völker, Stuttgart, 1874. Link ↩︎
9. F. Grosser, Ein neuer Vorschlag zur Deutung der Sator-Formel, Archiv für Religionwissenschaft, XXIV 1926. ↩︎
10. Book of Revelation 21,6: “I (am) the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end”. ↩︎
11. Book of Isaiah, 41, 4. ↩︎
12. Book of Isaiah, 41,6. ↩︎
13. Biblioteca Capitolare of Modena Cathedral, Cod. I 4. ↩︎
14. Ernst Aus`m Weerth, Der Mosaikboden in St. Gereon zu Cöln, 1873. ↩︎