. THE SATOR AREPO CHARM
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—This charm has attracted a good deal of attention lately. The Times, in a leader of April 25th headed Abracadabra refers to Dr. James's " cry of despair " that no one has ever made sense of the letters of the charm ; and the Rev: T. D. Hickes in the Guardian has discovered that the words, rearranged, spell Pater Nosier, plus the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.
While I salute with deference this ingenious expiscation I think that the solution shown to me more than a quarter of a century ago by the late Rev. Wentworth Webster of Sarsaree, Basses Pyrenees, the well-known Spanish and Basque scholar, is the best ; and as it has not been referred to, as far as I know, it may interest your readers :-- SATOR A REP 0 TBNE T OPERA ROTA S
. . " Learned men in modern times have asked what arepo could mean. Let my readers peruse the lines alternately from left to right, and right to left, upsidedown, lying on the side, in whatever position, repeating tenet, and they will fwd that the puzzle is simply the iterated words, " Sator opera tenet" (The Lord possesses (His) works).
"In the logic of witchcraft this formula, said in the usual way, would propitiate the good powers, and when said the reverse way, it would, of course, propitiate the evil. Written and pronounced as above it cannot but be pleasing to both." (Vide, p. 60, Gleanings in Church History, by Rev. Wentworth Webster, M.A., Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of History of Madrid, published by S.P.C.K., 1908).
The above explanation may also be found in Les loisirs dun &ranger au Pays Basque (p. 825), published at Chalon-sur- Saone in 1901 written in French by the same hand. -
My old friend adds many amusing and learned details, but these I omit.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Hurdle, Hants. (REV.) GABCOIGINTE MACKIE.
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