SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS (sometimes called the sator square) is a Latin palindrome, the words of which, when written in a square, may be read top-to-bottom, bottom-to-top, left-to-right, and right-to-left, as illustrated here.

Translation

The five words translate as follows:

Sator 

'Sower', 'planter'

Arepo 

Likely a proper name; its similarity with arrepo, from ad repo, 'I creep towards', is coincidental

Tenet 

'hold'

Opera 

'work', 'care', 'effort'

Rotas 

'wheels'

Two possible translations of the phrase are 'The sower Arepo holds the wheels with effort' and 'The sower Arepo leads with his hand (work) the plough (wheels).'

The word arepo is enigmatic, appearing nowhere else in Latin literature. Most of those who have studied the sator square agree that it is a proper name, either an adaptation of a non-Latin word or a name invented specifically for this sentence. Jerome Carcopino thought that it came from a Celtic, specifically Gaulish, word for plough. David Daube argued that it represented a Hebrew or Aramaic rendition of the Greek Αλφα ω, or "Alpha-Omega" (cf. Revelation 1:8) by early Christians. J. Gwyn Griffiths contended that it came, via Alexandria, from the attested Egyptian name Ḥr-Ḥp, which he took to mean "the face of Apis". (For more on these arguments see "'Arepo' in the Magic 'Sator' Square'": J. Gwyn Griffiths, The Classical Review, New Ser., Vol. 21, No. 1., March 1971, pp. 6-8.)

Appearances

The oldest sator square known was found in the ruins of Pompeii; others were found in excavations at Corinium (modern Cirencester) and Dura-Europos (in modern Syria).

Other sator squares are on the wall of the Duomo of Siena and on the tombstone of composer Anton von Webern, who experimented with the sator square in a musical way.

The sator square is a four-times palindrome, and some have attributed magical properties to it, considering it one of the broadest magical formulas in the occident; for example, the 19th-century Pennsylvania Dutch used it to protect cattle from witchcraft [1].

The fictional city of Ankh-Morpork in the Discworld series has a town square named Sator Square.

Anagrams

              A
              |
              P
              A
              T
              E
              R
A - P A T E R N O S T E R - O
              O
              S
              T
              E
              R
              |
              O

It is possible to write a horizontal and a vertical 'Pater Noster' with the letters of the sator square, forming a Greek cross. The two As and two Os which remain are then taken as Alpha and Omega (see above).

Other anagrams include Satan, ter oro te, reparato opes! (Satan, I bid you thrice: Return my fortune back to me!) and Petro et reo patet rosa sarona ([Saint] Peter, the guilty one, ??? the saronic rose .)

See also: magic square