Enquire Within Upon Everything

Palindrome, from the Greek palin-dromos, running back again.

This is a word, sentence, or verse that reads the same both forwards and backwards - as: 

madam,
level,
reviver;
live on no evil;

love your treasure and treasure your love;
you provoked Harry before Harry provoked you;
servants respect masters when masters respect servants.

Numerous examples of Palindrome or reciprocal word-twisting exist in Latin and French; but in English it is difficult to get a sentence which will be exactly the same when read either way.

The best example is the sentence which, referring to the first banishment of the Great Napoleon, makes him say, as to his power to conquer Europe:

"Able was I ere I saw Elba."

Robert Kemp Philp, EnquireWithin Upon Everything, Houlston and Sons, London, 1894.

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Chequered floor and Diamond palindrome

Chequered floor and Diamond palindrome

SOLVITUR AMBULANDO

On this chequered floor, paved with slabs each a foot square, the palindrome word ROTATOR can be traced in various ways.

If a man walks over it, taking one slab at every step, and never lengthening his strides, how many steps will he take in tracing every possible variation of the word, and how many such variations are there?

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

|=R=| O | T | A | T | O |=R=| O | T | A | T | O |=R=|

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

| O |=R=| O | T | A | T | O | T | A | T | O |=R=| O |

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

| T | O |=R=| O | T | A | T | A | T | O |=R=| O | T |

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

| A | T | O |=R=| O | T | A | T | O |=R=| O | T | A |

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

| T | A | T | O |=R=| O | T | O |=R=| O | T | A | T |

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

| O | T | A | T | O |=R=| O |=R=| O | T | A | T | O |

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

|=R=| O | T | A | T | O |=R=| O | T | A | T | O |=R=|

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

| O | T | A | T | O |=R=| O |=R=| O | T | A | T | O |

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

| T | A | T | O |=R=| O | T | O |=R=| O | T | A | T |

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

| A | T | O |=R=| O | T | A | T | O |=R=| O | T | A |

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

| T | O |=R=| O | T | A | T | A | T | O |=R=| O | T |

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

| O |=R=| O | T | A | T | O | T | A | T | O |=R=| O |

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

|=R=| O | T | A | T | O |=R=| O | T | A | T | O |=R=|

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

A DIAMOND PALINDROME

Within the four corners of this Mystic Diamond the Palindrome, NAME NO ONE MAN, can be traced in 16,376 different directions, in straight lines, or at right angles, starting from the centre or from the borders.

N

NaN

NamaN

NamemaN

NamenemaN

NamenonemaN

NamenooonemaN

NamenoonoonemaN

NamenoonenoonemaN

NamenoonemenoonemaN

NamenoonemamenoonemaN

NamenoonemaNamenoonemaN

NamenoonemamenoonemaN

NamenoonemenoonemaN

NamenoonenoonemaN

NamenoonoonemaN

NamenooonemaN

NamenonemaN

NamenemaN

NamemaN

NamaN

NaN

N

A. Cyril Pearson, TwentiethCentury Standard Puzzle Book, George Routledge & Sons, London, 1907.

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About Sotades in Plutarch's Morals

If anyone thinks it a small and unimportant matter to govern the tongue, another point I promised to touch on, he is very far from the reality.

For silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.

And that is, I think, the reason why the ancients instituted the mysteries that we, learning therein to be silent, might transfer our secrecy to the gods to human affairs.

And no one ever yet repented of his silence, while multitudes have repented of their speaking.

And what has not been said is easy to say, while what has been once said can never be recalled.

I have heard of myriads who have fallen into the greatest misfortunes through inability to govern their tongues.

Passing over the rest, I will mention one or two cases in point.

When Ptolemy Philadelphus married his sister Arsinoe, Sotades said, "You are contracting an unholy marriage."

For this speech he long lingered in prison, and paid the righteous penalty for his unseasonable babbling, and had to weep a long time for making others laugh.

Theocritus the Sophist similarly cracked his jokes, and had to pay even a greater penalty. F

Plutarch, Plutarch's Morals (Translator: Arthur Richard Shilleto), Sometime Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, London, 1898.

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Sotades, a libellous poet, put to death

The Ionic dialect also supplies us with poems of Sotades, and with what before his time were called Ionic poems, such as those of Alexander the Ætolian, and Pyres the Milesian, and Alexas, and other poets of the same kind; and Sotades is called κιναιδόλογος.

And Sotades the Maronite was very notorious for this kind of poetry, as Carystius of Pergamus says in his essay on Sotades; and so was the son of Sotades, Apollonius: and this latter also wrote an essay on his father's poetry, from which one may easily see the unbridled licence of language which Sotades allowed himself,—abusing Lysimachus the king in Alexandria,—and, when at the court of Lysimachus, abusing Ptolemy Philadelphus,—and in different cities speaking ill of different sovereigns; on which account, at last, he met with the punishment that he deserved: for when he had sailed from Alexandria (as Hegesander, in his Reminiscences, relates), and thought that he had escaped all danger, (for he had said many bitter things against Ptolemy the king, and especially this, after he had heard that he had married his sister Arsinoe,— He pierced forbidden fruit with deadly sting,)

Patrocles, the general of Ptolemy, caught him in the island of Caunus, and shut him up in a leaden vessel, and carried him into the open sea and drowned him.

And his poetry is of this kind: Philenus was the father of Theodorus the flute-player, on whom he wrote these lines:

And he, opening the door which leads from the back-street,

Sent forth vain thunder from a leafy cave,

Such as a mighty ploughing ox might utter.

Athenaeus of Naucratis, TheDeipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (Translator: Charles Duke Yonge), London, 1854. 

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Word analogous to Abraxas

Abracadabra, ab-ra-ka-dab′ra, n. a cabbalistic word, written in successive lines, each shorter by a letter than the one above it, till the last letter A formed the apex of a triangle.

It was worn as a charm for the cure of diseases.

Now used generally for a spell or conjuring word: mere gibberish. [First found in 2d-cent. poem (Præcepta de Medicina) by Q. Serenus Sammonicus; further origin unknown.]

Thomas Davidson, Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D), W. & R. Chambers, Edinburgh, 1908.

Abracadabra, a word analogous to Abraxas (q.v.), used as a magical formula by the Gnostics of the sect of Basilides in invoking the aid of beneficent spirits against disease and misfortune. 

It is found on Abraxas stones which were worn as amulets. 

Subsequently its use spread beyond the Gnostics, and in modern times it is applied contemptuously (e g. by the early opponents of the evolution theory) to a conception or hypothesis which purports to be a simple solution of apparently insoluble phenomena. 

The Gnostic physician Serenus Sammonicus gave precise instructions as to its mystical use in averting or curing agues and fevers generally. 

The paper on which the word was written had to be folded in the form of a cross, suspended from the neck by a strip of linen so as to rest on the pit of the stomach, worn in this way for nine days, and then, before sunrise, cast behind the wearer into a stream running to the east.  

The letters were usually arranged as a triangle.

The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia, Volume 1

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Sotădes, an athlete

A Greek poet of Thrace. 

He wrote verses against Philadelphus Ptolemy, for which he was thrown into the sea in a cage of lead. 

He was called Cinædus, not only because he was addicted to the abominable crime which the surname indicates, but because he wrote a poem in commendation of it. 

Some suppose, that instead of the word Socraticos in the 2nd satire, verse the 10th, of Juvenal, the word Sotadicos should be inserted, as the poet Sotades, and not the philosopher Socrates, deserved the appellation of Cinædus. 

Obscene verses were generally called Sotadea carmina from him. 

They could be turned and read different ways without losing their measure or sense, such as the following, which can be read backwards:

Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor.

Si bene te tua laus taxat, sua laute tenebis.

Sole medere pede, ede, perede melos.

Quintilian, bk. 1, ch. 8; bk. 9, ch. 4.—Pliny, bk. 5, ltr. 3.—Ausonius, ltr. 17, li. 29.

John Lemprière – A classical dictionary, United Kingdom: George Routledge and Sons, 1904

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Palindromical Lines

Palindromical Lines (Vol. vii., pp. 178. 366.).

Besides the habitats already given for the Greek inscription on a font, I have notes of the like at Melton Mowbray; St. Mary's, Nottingham; in the private chapel at Longley Castle; and at Hadleigh.

At this last place, it is noted in a church book to be taken out of Gregory Nazienzen (but I never could find it), and a reference is made to Jeremy Taylor's Great Exemplar, "Discourse on Baptism," p. 120. sect. 17.

It may be worth noticing that this Gregory was, for a short time, in the fourth century, bishop of Constantinople; and in the Moslemised cathedral of St. Sophia, in that city, according to Grelot, quoted in Collier's Dictionary, the same words—with the difference that "sin" is put in the plural, sic:

"ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ"

were written in letters of gold over the place at the entrance of the church, between two porphyry pillars, where stood two urns of marble filled with water, the use of which, when it was a Christian temple, must be well known.

The Turks now use them for holding drinking water, and have probably done so since the time when the church was turned into a mosque, after the conquest of Constantinople by Mahomet II., in the fifteenth century.

What could induce Zeus (p. 366.) to call this inscription "sotadic?" It may more fitly be called holy.

These lines also are to be found on the marble basins for containing holy water, in one of the churches at Paris.

The Greek inscription mentioned by Jeremy Taylor is on the font in Rufford Church.

Notes and Queries, Number 182, April 23, 1853.

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The first mention of Abracadabra

The first mention of the famous charm Abracadabra, which so often appears engraved on Gnostic gems, occurs in a Latin medical poem written by Serenus Sammonicus who lived in the third century and is said to have bequeathed his library consisting of sixty-two thousand volumes to the Emperor Gordian the Younger.

The poem recommends this mystic word, or name, as a sovereign remedy for the “demitertian” fever, if it were written on a piece of paper and suspended by a linen thread from the neck of the patient.

To have its full efficacy the word should be written as many times as there are letters in it, but taking away one letter each time, so that the inscription assumed the form of an inverted cone.

It is interesting to note that De Foe, writing in the seventeenth century of the Great Plague in London (1665), alludes to this strange talisman as still in use.

Treating of the curious prophylactics employed at that time, he reproaches those who employed such methods, and acted “as if the plague was not the hand of God, but a kind of possession of an evil spirit, and that it was to be kept off with crossings, signs of the zodiac, papers tied up with so many knots, and certain words or figures, as particularly the word Abracadabra formed in triangle or pyramid, thus:

A B R A C A D A B R A

A B R A C A D A B R

A B R A C A D A B

A B R A C A D A

A B R A C A D

A B R A C A

A B R A C

A B R A

A B R

A B

A

George Frederick Kunz, The magic of jewels and charms, J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1915.

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The unmeaning word „abracadabra“

John Melton, in his "Astrologaster" (1620), says it is vulgarly believed that "toothaches, agues, cramps, and fevers, and many other diseases may be healed by mumbling a few strange words over the head of the diseased."

Written charms in prose or verse-or neither, being nonsensical combinations of words, letters, or signs-were in great favor then, as before and since.

The unmeaning word „abracadabra“ was much used in incantations, and worn as an amulet was supposed to cure or prevent certain ailments.

It was necessary to write it in the following form, if one would secure its full potency:

A B R A C A D A B R A

A B R A C A D A B R

A B R A C A D A B

A B R A C A D A

A B R A C A D

A B R A C A

A B R A C

A B R A

A B R

A B

A

A manuscript in the British Museum contains this note: "Mr. Banester saith that he healed 200 in one year of an ague by hanging „abracadabra“ about their necks."

Thomas Lodge, in his „Incarnate Divels“ (1596) refers to written charms thus: "Bring him but a table [tablet] of lead, with crosses (and 'Adonai' or 'Elohim' written in it), he thinks it will heal the ague."

W. J. (William James) Rolfe,Shakespeare the Boy, Chatto & Windus, London, 1897.

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Præcepta de Medicina

The Romans believed that the magical power of prayers was enhanced if they were uttered with a loud voice.

Hence a saying attributed to Seneca:

"So speak to God as though all men heard your prayers."

Of great repute among the healing-spells of antiquity was the cabalistic word „Abracadabra“, which occurs first in a medical treatise entitled "Præcepta de Medicina," by the Roman writer Quintus Serenus Samonicus, who flourished in the second century.

An inverted triangular figure, formed by writing this word in the manner hereinafter described, was much valued as an antidote against fevers; cloth or parchment being the material originally used for the inscription.

Thou shalt on paper write the spell divine,
„Abracadabra“ called, on many a line,
Each under each in even order place,
But the last letter in each line efface;
As by degrees the elements grow few,
Still take away, but fix the residue,
Till at the last one letter stands alone,
And the whole dwindles to a tapering cone.
Tie this about the neck with flaxen string,
Mighty the good 't will to the patient bring.
Its wondrous potency shall guard his bed,
And drive disease and death far from his head.[127:1]

Robert Means Lawrence, PrimitivePsycho-Therapy and Quackery, The Riverside Press Cambridge, 1910.

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