Nipson anomēmata mē monan opsin

Nipson anomēmata mē monan opsin (Ancient Greek: Νίψον ἀνομήματα, μὴ μόναν ὄψιν), meaning "Wash the sins, not only the face",^[2] or "Wash my transgressions, not only my face",^[3] is a Greek palindrome^{[fn 1]} that is said to be first inscribed upon a holy water font outside the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople:^[4]

ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ (translation: Wash your sins, not only your face) in the monastery of Panayia Malevi [el].^[1]

Origin

The phrase is attributed to the fourth-century Saint Gregory of Nazianzus.^[3]

When the sentence is rendered in capital letters, as would be usual for an inscription (ΝΙΨΟΝΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑΜΗΜΟΝΑΝΟΨΙΝ), all the letters are vertically symmetrical except for the Ν. As a result, if the N is stylized Ͷ in the right half (ΝΙΨΟΝΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑΜΗΜΟͶΑͶΟΨΙͶ), the sentence is not only a palindrome but also a mirror ambigram.

Examples

Examples of the inscription

Preveli Monastery, Crete, Greece

Baptismal font, St Martin's Church, Ludgate

The inscription can also be found in the following places:

• above the Hagiasma ("Holy Spring") of the Church of St. Mary of Blachernae in Istanbul;
• around the baptismal font at St. Michael's Cathedral in Barbados;
• at the Vlatadon Monastery [el], Thessaloniki, Greece.^[5]
• at a fountain inside the church Panagia Ekatontapiliani in Parikia on the island Paros, Greece
• the font of several churches in Paris, including: St. Stephen d’Egres, Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, Paris, St. Martin des Champs [fr], St. Pierre de Chaillot [fr], and Basilica of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, Paris;
• in several churches in Britain, including: St. Mary's Church, Nottingham, Tewkesbury Abbey (Gloucestershire), Worlingworth (Suffolk), Harlow (Essex), Knapton (Norfolk), St Martin, Ludgate (London), St Ethelburga's Bishopsgate (London), and Hadleigh (Suffolk);

See also

• List of Greek phrases
• Sator square

References

Footnotes

1. The romanization is not a palindrome because the Greek letter ψ (psi) is transcribed by the digraph ps. The modern diacritics, which are not symmetrical, are usually omitted from inscriptions of the sentence.

Citations

1. "Παναγία Μαλεβή: Το Άγιο Όρος της Πελοποννήσου". Dinfo.gr (in Greek). Archived from the original on 2023-11-15. Retrieved 2023-11-15.
2. Blake, Barry J. (2010). Secret Language: Codes, Tricks, Spies, Thieves, and Symbols. Oxford: University Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-19-957928-0.
3. Preminger, Alex; Brogan, Terry V.F.; Warnke, Frank J. (1993). The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (3rd ed.). Princeton University Press. p. 874. ISBN 0-691-02123-6.
4. Langford-James, R. A Dictionary of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Ayer. p. 61. ISBN 0-8337-5047-X.
5. "Wash the sins, not only the face". Flickr. 2012-07-20. Retrieved 2013-10-01.