The Sator Square

 Tenet in all cases was a very good movie. I had talked about it's the time-traveling plot in my past blogs, if you haven't read them yet, please check them out. but, today I'm going to talk about a very fascinating thing in history which has got a huge role to play in Tenet. 

                                                                     

This is the Sator Square. At first glance, This looks like some made-up words written by a 5-year old child. But if we say that these words have been repeated multiple times in course of history! A coincidence? Of course not. Lets look at each words meaning one by one-

SATOR-(from serere- to sow) sower, planter, founder, progenitor(usually divine), originator, seeder.

AREPO- Actually this is still an unknown name. Many speculations are that this is a proper name of someone, or probably specially invented word for this square or even related to Egyptian origin.

TENET-(from tenere- to hold) keeps, comprehends, possesses, masters, preserves, sustains.

OPERA-work, care, aid, labor, service, effort, trouble, works, deeds.

ROTAS-wheels, turn or cause to rotate.

Now, if you observe closely, the first and last, the second and 4th and 3rd itself, are palindromes, which means if you flip the word you could see the other word. Which is the other closest example, 'Racecar'.

In this, the word Arepo has a got a special place as all the other words have at least a written record in history but this word seems to be meaningless. That's why many historians have accepted that this word is a proper noun. But still some possibilities are that some historians believe that this word is derived from some Egyptian origin as the closest word similar to it is, 'harpocrates', the Egyptian god of silence, secrets and confidentiality. 

By repositioning the letters around the central letter, 'N', a Greek cross can be made that reads Pater Noster (Latin for 'Our Father'). The remaining letters-two each of A and O can be taken to represent Alpha and Omega, a reference in Christianity to omnipresence of god. Thus the square might have been used by Christians to secretly to signify their presence to each other. Because in the early Roman times  Christians had been side placed and tortured throughout the reigns of emperor Nero. One such example was when The Great fire of Rome broke out, Nero diverted attention away from his own failings and targeted Christians for the the breakout of the fire . Thus this square could have also had a christian origin.

   In history, This square has been excavated a lot of times. The oldest one has been found in the ruins of, 'Pompeii', which itself deserves a separate blog post. Others have been found in cities like, Rome, Manchester and Dura Europos (now in Syria). In Capestrano, Italy, a marble square inscription has been found. Overall, this square has been found in a lot of European subcontinent and some part of Asia.

The next paragraph might contain spoilers of the movie,'Tenet' so i recommend readers who haven't watched the movie yet to avoid reading the coming paragraph.

  In Pop Culture, The Sator Square has been shown multiple times but the one which stands out is Christopher Nolan's 2020 film, itself titled, 'Tenet'. In the film the words of the Sator Square have been used somewhere or the other in the movie, like, Sator is named the main Antagonist of the film. Arepo was mentioned in the film as a Spanish Painter. Tenet is the title of the film and also an organization in the film which tries to prevent the time traveling thing in the movie. There is a crucial Opera fight scene in the movie. Rotas was a tricky one to spot as it didn't had any important role in the movie, but the security which arrives after the free port plane crash is actually named, 'Rotas Security'.





  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andrei Sator, antagonist of Tenet



 

 















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