sator rebus: An unsolved cryptogram?*, The

Cryptologia, Jul 2003 by Sheldon, Rose Mary

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(erum) 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 (q.v.)

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

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

Kolberg, Verhandlung der Berliner Gesellschaft fur Anthropologie, 1887, 69.

He regards the letters of the sator acrostic as abbreviations of Latin words. He refers to the Nuremberg plate described in Verhandlung der Berliner Gesellschaft fur 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, which he arranges arbitrarily as follows:

SAT ORARE

POTENter ET OPERAre

RatiO (oder auch ReligiO) TuA Sit.

He interprets:

Viel beten

Und kraftig arbeiten

Das sei Deine Lebensweise (oder Religion)

He believes it is an ancient rule of the Benedictines.

THE PATER NOSTER SOLUTION

The Christian solution which really sent scholars reeling, and which for a very long time was accepted as the ultimate solution by a large number of reputable scholars was discovered by three people independently. They suggested that the letters of the square could be arranged to produce the first two words of the oratio dominica (the "our Father" prayer). Felix Grosser, a German priest, caused a furor when he published an article in 1926 where he demonstrated that 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 the sator rebus was invented during the persecutions of the Christians.

Felix Grosser, "Ein neuer Vorschlag zur Deutung der Sator-Formel," Archiv fur Religionswissenschaft 24 (1926), 165-169.

Unbeknownst to him, a Swedish scholar working simultaneously and independently, came to the same conclusion:

Sigurd Agrell, "Runornas talmystik och dess antika Forebild," Skrifter utgivna av Vetenskaps-Societeten i Lund 6 (1927), 31ff.

Agrell introduced the theory in a lecture in 1925. Only page 30-32 are on the sator square. It forms a sidelight in a book about runic numerical magic.

Indeed, a third scholar had stumbled upon the pater noster solution two years earlier: Christian Frank, Deutsche Gaue 25 (1924), 76.

Grosser's remained the best known and most influential of the three independent explanations of the pater noster theory. Since all the known examples of the square found in the 1920s had dated to the fourth century or later, authors felt secure in giving the formula a Christian context. When Jerphanion published an extensive treatment of the problem along these lines in 1935, the matter seemed closed. Many reputable scholars accepted the pater noster solution: