Playing with words from antiquity
- Pompeii (Italy), 1925. Archaeologists, among other objects, found a special inscription in the famous site. It's a multipalondromo made up of five Latin words called Square Topo.
Pompeii is the oldest exemplary found to date (Vesuvius d.C. It exploded in the year 79 and, therefore, the writing is older), but not the only one; so far there have been many Square Sators of the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages, carved in walls or columns, or documented, and most, in churches or surroundings.
Sator (erein), arepo (unknown meaning; some believe it is their own name of Egyptian origin), tenet (eutsi), opera (wool, zaina) and broken (biratu) are the five words, which can be read from left to right, from right to left, from top to top.
The sentence comprising these five words is usually translated as follows: “The Arepo planting leads the wheels with skill.” Because the phrase doesn't make much sense, many have tried to find the mysterious meaning that seems to hide the square. Esoteric theories, kabbalistic theories, etc. have been created, but the most widespread theory is the one that relates to Christianity. For example, they say that by cutting words in a different way, the following phrase is formed: “Sat orare poten et opera broken” or “Enough power to pray and work every day.”
Bringing the most extreme interpretations, changing the order of the letters, you can get a cross formed by two paternosters, but this interpretation has an error: two “a” and “or” are left over. But this has also been taken advantage of by some defenders of Christian origin: The letters “a” and “o” are alpha and omega in the Greek alphabet and, therefore, signify the beginning and the end that bind the two godfathers.
Therefore, if we put the letters in the desired order and remove the ones that do not suit us, we will eventually get the Square Topo to tell us what we want. Thus, the combinations and consequences can be almost infinite and it will become increasingly difficult to reveal the mystery that appears to encompass the inscription. Or maybe there's no mystery, and what Square Topo clearly says is that humans have liked to play with words forever.
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