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.

Photo: pngwing

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Palindrom in the monastery of Petschenga

Come with me, and let us take a trip far away to the North Country, to the coast of the White Sea, to the land of the midnight sun, to the shores of Russian Lapland... 

Not many persons are acquainted with the fact that in Finmark, far away to the North, and on the very shores of the Arctic Ocean, there once stood a large monastery, which was famed, in its day, throughout the Greek Church for its sanctity, its wealth, and its industry.

That monastery was the most northerly one on the globe. 

It was situated on the seventieth degree of latitude, not far from the mouth of the Petschenga River, and immediately to the east of the present boundary between Norwegian Lapland and Russia. 

The districts of Neiden, Pasvig and Petschenga (or Peisen) formed, as is well known, a debateable territory, on which both Norwegians and Russians levied taxes...

The church, which was built in honour of the Holy Trinity, was adorned with a tower and dome. 

It was decorated inside with paintings and with the gifts of pious pilgrims. 

It was constructed after the old Greek Church plan, which is followed throughout Russia, whether the church is large or small, or whether it is built of stone or merely of wood. 

Such a church has three divisions, viz.: the narthex, or outer church; the hieron, the sacred part, or church proper; and the hieraton, the sanctuary, or holy place. 

This division is said to be a representation of the Temple at Jerusalem. 

The outer church is separated from the hieron by a wall, in which are two large folding doors; these are always open during Divine service. 

The hieraton, or sanctuary, in which the altar is placed, is in turn separated from the church, or hieron, by the iconastasis, or wall of pictures. 

This wall is decorated with carvings, and there are three doorways in it leading to the holy place. 

The middle one of these doorways is only closed with a wooden door for half of its height, but the upper half is shut off by a curtain, which can be drawn aside so that the priest as he officiates and offers incense may be seen. 

At other times he is hidden from the congregation. 

Not a pew or seat is to be found in the church. 

Everybody has to stand, rich and poor alike, for no distinction is made. 

Turning to the holy place, or towards the picture of some particular saint, the people cross themselves three times in the Greek manner, by putting three fingers, the first finger, thumb and middle finger, on the right and left shoulders, the forehead and breast, and bowing themselves very low, with their foreheads touching the ground, at the same time saying, ‘Gospodi pomilui’ (Lord, have mercy). 

This sentence is constantly repeated throughout the service, and it frequently happens that the more devout members of the congregation, by reason of their continual bowings to the ground, leave the church with red spots on their foreheads.

All the walls inside the church are covered as completely as possible with pictures, which are either painted on the walls themselves, or are hung in frames against them. 

The pictures in the narthex are taken, as a rule, from the Old Testament, and those in the hieron from the New Testament. 

Besides these there are pictures of men and women who are recognised as saints in the Eastern Church. 

The older these pictures are, the holier they are esteemed. 

In copying them, therefore, the chief object is to give the copy an appearance of antiquity. 

Many of the pictures have been painted by the monks themselves, and, as a rule, they are done in very glaring colours. 

The heads of the saints are always surrounded by a golden glory, on the gilding of which much money is frequently expended. 

They are also often hung with presents, such as handkerchiefs and other personal finery, which have been offered by pilgrims whose particular saint is represented. 

Sometimes one sees a wreath of blown birds’ eggs hung up by the picture, a melancholy token of hopes blighted in this world. 

The front wall in the church, through which access to the outer church is gained, is covered with a lean-to roof, and on this wall there is depicted, in order to excite the imagination and the fear of the heathen folk, on the right hand of the door the bliss of Paradise, and on the left hand the torments of Hell. 

Here the heathen as they stood outside the church and listened to the singing, would have made manifest to them what would be the lot of those who did not seek the help which the Church offered them, and who refused to be baptized. 

One thing, however, in the pictures was strange and suggestive, and might have made the heathen doubtful about the charms of Paradise, and this was, that the saints in Paradise were delineated as so fearfully emaciated that they seemed to be nothing but skin and bone, owing to the fasting and the asceticism by which they had made themselves worthy of heaven. 

The other folk, moreover, who were in hell, seemed to be well-favoured, lusty, and thriving, and altogether more attractive.

In the middle of the courtyard, between the monastery buildings, there was a draw-well, and upon a beam placed over it there was the following inscription, which can be read backwards,

Νίψον ἀνομήμα μὴ μόναν ὄψιν

 (Wash away uncleanness, not from the face alone)

a reminder that water is used in the administration of Holy Baptism.

The inscription Νίψον ἀνομήμα μὴ μόναν ὄψιν occurs on the fonts at Sandbach Church (Cheshire), Rufford (Lancashire), and elsewhere in England.

The monks, who year by year became more numerous, obtained by degrees still further privileges from the Czar of Russia...

J. A. Friis, The monasteryof Petschenga, Sketches of Russian Lapland (from historical and legendary sources), London: Elliot Stock, 1896.

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The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical

Palindromes

One of the most remarkable palindromes is the following:

SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS.

Its distinguishing peculiarity is that the first letter of each successive word writes to spell the first word; the second letter of each the second word, and so on throughout; and the same will be found as precisely true upon reversal.

But the neatest and prettiest that has yet appeared comes from a highly cultivated lady who was attached to the court of Queen Elizabeth.

Having been banished from the court on suspicion of too great familiarity with a nobleman in high favor, the lady adopted this device — a moon covered by a cloud — and the following palindrome for a motto—

ABLATA AT ALBA. 

(Secluded but Pure.)

The merit of this kind of composition was never in any example so heightened by appropriateness and delicacy of sentiment.

Frank H. Stauffer, The Queer,the Quaint and the Quizzical (A Cabinet for the Curious), David Mckay, publisher, Philadelphia, 1882.

Photo: Pixabay/GDJ 

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A curious Sator charm

A curious charm which was extensively used as an amulet in medieval times consists of five Latin words so arranged that they can be read backwards or forwards and also upwards or downwards.

The disposition of the letters is as follows:

s a t o r

a r e p o

t e n e t

o p e r a

r o t a s

This charm has been preserved for us in Greek and Coptic as well as in Roman characters, and examples of it have been found cut in a marble slab above the chapel of St. Laurent at Rochemaur (Ardèche), France, and also in the plaster wall of an old Roman house at Cirncester, Gloucestershire, England.

In a Greek manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale, in Paris, the Latin words are transliterated and translated as follows:

σάτορ, the sower
ἀρεπο, the plough
τένετ, holds
ὀπερα, works
ρότας, wheels

Another and more ingenious explanation of this puzzle has, however, been given.

Beginning with the last word “rotas,” and taking the other words in their order, it is proposed to read as follows:

“The plough-wheels (rotas), the laborer (opera), holds (tenet), creep after him (arepo), I, the sower (sator).”

The chief defect in this version appears to be the assumption that “opera” can be rendered “laborer,” an interpretation which is, at best, supported by a doubtful use of the word in that sense by Horace.

This charm appears in an Italian manuscript of the fourteenth century, where it is recommended to be used for the assurance of a speedy delivery.

Touching the wonderful and mystic power attributed to the seven vowels of the Greek alphabet by the Gnostics, C. W. King cites the following words from the Pistis Sophia of Valentinus:

Nothing therefore is more excellent than the mysteries which ye seek after, saving only the mystery of the Seven Vowels and their forty and nine Powers, and the Numbers thereof.

And no name is more excellent than all these [Vowels], a Name wherein be contained all Names and all Lights and all Powers.

The last sentence probably refers to the arrangement of these vowels often met with in inscribed Gnostic talismans, the so-called Abraxas gems.

Here we often find them in the following order Ι Ε Η Θ Ο Υ Α, and the sound of these vowels really suggests the conventional pronunciation of the Hebrew name Jehovah (yehowah).

The words quoted from the Pistis Sophia are placed in the mouth of Jesus, and King calls attention to the fact that in Greek the same word is used for voice and vowel (φώνη).

He therefore believes that the passage in Revelations (x, 3–4):

“The seven thunders uttered their voices,” signifies that the sound of the seven vowels “echoed through the vault of heaven, and composed that mystic utterance which the sainted seer was forbidden to reveal unto mortals.”

Certain talismans were supposed to afford protection not only to individuals but even to entire cities.

Of this class were two talismans described by Gregory of Tours.

He relates that Paris had enjoyed from ancient times a surprising immunity from serpents and rats, as well as from fires.

However, in clearing out the channel beneath a bridge across the Seine, the workmen found, embedded in the mud, two brazen images, one of a serpent and the other of a rat; after these had been removed from their resting place, serpents and rats appeared, and conflagrations became common.

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

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James Appleton Morgan - Macaronic poetry

Another ingenious verse is the Palindrome, from πάλιν and δρóμος, to flow or run back; sometimes called Sotadic verse, from Sotades, their inventor, though a higher (or a lower) authority is sometimes given; the first palindrome having been, according to one account, the impromptu of an unfortunate demon, while carrying most unwillingly a portly canon of Combremer from Bayeux to Rome; it reads the same either backwards or forwards, which is the essential of a palindrome:

Signa te, signa, temere me tangis et angis,
Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor.

Another legend refers this palindrome to Satan himself, while carrying St. Martin on his shoulders.

Its tranflation is, „Cross yourself, cross yourself; you annoy and threaten me unnecessarily“ for, owing to my exertions, you will soon reach Rome, your object."

Other examples are:

Si bene te tua Iaus taxat, sua laute tenebis,
Sole medere pede, ede, perede melos.

Again:

Et necat eger amor non Roma rege tacente,
Roma reges una non anus eger amor.

In which the word serves as a pivot.

Each word in the line:

Odo tenet mulum, mappam madidam tenet Anna,

is a perfect palindrome.

The line

Sator arepo tenet opera rotas,  

besides being a palindrome, can be arranged in a square, when it will be perceived that the firft letters of each of its words spell its firft word Sator; the second, from the second of each, its second word Arepo, and so on; 

thus:

S A T O R

A R E P O

T E N E T

O P E R A

R O T A S

The same properties exist in the Latin words Time, Item, Meti, and Emit; 

thus:

T I M E

I T E M

M E T I

E M I T

The following epitaph at the entrance of the Church of San Salvador, in the city Oviedo, in Spain, erected by Prince Silo, may be read two hundred and seventy different ways, by beginning with the S in the centre

Silo Princeps Fecit

T I C E F S P E C N C E P S F E C I T

I C E F S P E C N I N C E P S F E C I

C E F S P E C N I R I N C E P S F E C

E F S P E C N I R P R I N C E P S F E

F S P E C N I R P O P R I N C E P S F

S P E C N I R P O L O P R I N C E P S

P E C N I R P O L I L O P R I N C E P

E C N I R P O L I S I L O P R I N C E

P E C N I R P O L I L O P R I N C E P

S P E C N I R P O L O P R I N C E P S

F S P E C N I R P O P R I N C E P S F

E F S P E C N I R P R I N C E P S F E

C E F S P E C N I R I N C E P S F E C

I C E F S P E C N I N C E P S F E C I

T I C E F S P E C N C E P S F E C I T

On the tomb are inscribed these letters:

H. S. E. S. S. T. T. L.

The letters employed in this square being the initials of the words,

Hic situs est Silo, sit tibi terra levis.

Here lies Silo, may the earth lie light on him.

The lawyer's motto,

Si nummis immunis

Give me my fee, and I warrant you free,

Is a palindrome.

In the time of Queen Elizabeth, a noble lady, who had been forbidden to appear at court in consequence of some suspicions against her, took for the device on her feal, the moon partly obscured by a cloud, with the palindromic motto:

Ablata at alba,

Secluded, but pure.

Taylor, the water poet, writes:

Lews did I live, and evil did I dwel.

Another English palindrome is:

Snug & raw was I, ere I saw war & guns.

And one is put into the mouth of Napoleon the Great:

Able was I ere I saw Elba.

There is an enigma, in which the initials of five palindromic words are to be fought, to form the required answer; e. g.:

First find out a word that doth silence proclaim,
And that backwards and forwards is always the same ;
Then next you must find out a feminine name,
That backwards and forwards is always the same ;
An act, or a writing on parchment, whose name,
Both backwards and forwards is always the same ;
A fruit that is rare, whose botanical name,
Read backwards and forwards is always the same ;
A note used in music which time doth proclaim,
And backwards and forwards is always the same ;
Their initials connected, a title will frame
(That is justly the due of the fair married dame,)
Which backwards and forwards is always the same.

There is a well-known Greek inscription on the font at Sandbock, in Cheshire, England, as well as in the Church of St Sophia, at Constantinople:

Νίψον ανομήματα, μη μόναν όψιν.

That is, freely, „Purify the mind as well as the body.“

The following verses are reversible in sense, as well as in words, by being read backwards:

Prospicimus modo, quod durabunt tempore longo,
Fœdera, nec patriæ pax cito dissugiet.
Dissugiet cito pax patriæ, nec fœdera longo,
Tempore durabunt quod modo prospicimus.
Patrum dicta probo, nec sacris belligerabo.*

(* Expressing the sentiments of a Romanist or a Huguenot, as it is read forwards or backwards.)

The following are promiscuous examples:

Retro mente labo, non metro continuabo.
Continuabo metro ; non labo mente retro.
Sacrum pingue dabo, non macrum sacrificabo.
Sacrificabo macrum non dabo pingue sacrum.

It is observable that the last above hexameter, from Santa Marca Novella, Florence, refers, in the first instance, to the sacrifice of Abel (Gene sis iv. 4); reversed, as in the second line, the reference is to the sacrifice of Cain (Gen. iv 3)

Arca serenum me gere regem, munere sacra,
Solem, arcas, animos, omnia sacra, melos.

Epitaph on Henry IV., by Paschasms.

And Addison tells of a palindrome, called "The Witches Prayer," which "fell into verse, when read either backwards or forwards, excepting only that it blessed one way and cursed the other."

In 1802 was printed at Vienna a small volume of palindromes, written in ancient Greek, by Ambrosius, a modern Greek.

The volume, which was called Πóιημα χαρχινιχòν, contains four hundred and fifty-six lines, every one of which is palindromic. Here follows a few of them:

Ισα πασι Ση τε γη, Συ σ Μσυσηγετης ις απασι.
Νεαν ασω μελιφωνον, ώ φιλε, Μωσαν, αεν.
Ω λακωνικε, σε μονω τω Νομε, σε κινω καλω.
Αρετα πηγασε σε σα γη πατερα.
Σωτηρ συ εσω, ώ ελεε ΰεε λεω ος ευς ρητως.

Palindromic verse, which exactly reverses its meaning upon being read backwards, is some times called Sidonian verse, such having been first constructed by Sidonius.

The example given below was written in praise of Pope Clement VI. (some say Pius II).

The poet, fearing, however, that he might not receive as great a reward as, in his own estimation, he deserved, retained the power of converting his flattery into abuse, by simply giving his friends the cue, to commence at the last word, and read backwards:

Pauperibus tua das gratis, nec munera curas
Curia Papalis, quod modo percipimus.
Laus tua, non tua fraus, virtus non copia rerum,
Scandere te faciunt, hoc decus eximium.
Conditio tua sit stabilis, nec tempore parvo
Vivere te faciat hic Deus omnipotens.

Of the same kind, are these three distiches by Du Bellay, a French poet:

AD JULIUM III. PONTIFICEM MAXIMUM.

Pontifici siia fint Divino Numine tuta
Culmina, nec montes hos petat Omnipotens.

AD CAROLUM V. CÆSAREM.

Cæsareum tibi sit felici sidere nomen,
Carole, nec fatum sit tibi Cæsareum.

AD FERDINANDUM ROMANORUM REGEM.

Romulidum bone Rex, magno sis Cæsare major,
Nomine, nec satis, aut minor imperio.

A complete specimen appears in the line applicable either to Cain or Abel, being also hexameter in the one cafe, and pentameter in the other; just given, in treating of palindromes.

The line,

Patrum dicta probo, nec facris belligerabo

is a Sidonian, as well as several others before given, among the palindromes.

Dean Swift used to write to Dr. Sheridan in words unintelligible as they stood, but capable of being turned into tolerable English by being read backwards.

Thus:

Mi sana. Odiofo ni mus rem. Moto ima os illud dama nam!

(I'm an ass. O, so I do in summer. O, Tom, I am so dull, I a mad man!) •

The Epitaph. In Cunwallow Church yard, Cornwall, England, is to be found the following, which, like the specimen on page 47, "Silo Princeps Fecit," partakes of the palindromic character, decipherable from any possible point of vision, so that "he may run that readeth it:"

Shall we all die?
We shall die all,
All die shall we —
Die all we shall.

James Appleton Morgan - Macaronic poetry (collected with an intr. by J. A. Morgan), Hurd & Houghton, New York, 1872.

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