
Ancient Amulet Discovered with Curious Palindrome Inscription - Thevet
http://www.livescience.com/49239-ancient-amulet-palindrome-inscription.html
======
JadeNB
> The amulet contains a Greek inscription … which reads the same backwards as
> it does forwards, a feature known as a palindrome …. Although the
> translation doesn’t read as a palindrome, the original ancient Greek text
> does.

I don't know whether to appreciate their devotion to not assuming a cultural
background on the part of their audience, or to be horrified that it's
necessary to (a) define what a palindrome is and (b) pre-emptively point out
that the translation of a palindrome need not also be a palindrome (unlike the
translation of a lipogram
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Void](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Void)
:-) ).

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HenryLim
The inscription translates as “Iahweh is the bearer of the secret name, the
lion of Re secure in his shrine.”

ΙΑΕW ΒΑΦΡΕΝΕΜ ΟΥΝΟΘΙΛΑΡΙ ΚΝΙΦΙΑΕΥΕ ΑΙΦΙΝΚΙΡΑΛ ΙΘΟΝΥΟΜΕ ΝΕΡΦΑΒW ΕΑΙ

\--quoted from Article

Iahweh seems like a Greek transliteration of the Jewish God Yahweh.

The question I have is who is the lion of Re?

~~~
wyck
Most likely the Lion of Judah, who's symbol and emblem was and is still
currently used, considering Yahweh was the national god of the Kingdom of
Judah.

This can be seen on the coat of arms of Jerusalem :
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emblem_of_Jerusalem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emblem_of_Jerusalem)

~~~
HenryLim
Amazing! So the translation can be read as "Yahweh is the bearer of the secret
name, and the lion of Judah secure in his shrine.

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classicsnoot
I see no evidence for this idea, yet i cannot help but wonder: could this be
some sort of ironic and/or humorous observation on the local religiosity? Kind
of like some future human civilization discovering I am America and So Can You
by S. Colbert and not having any contextual reference?

------
gilgoomesh
This was published in 2013:

[http://www.ceeol.com/aspx/getdocument.aspx?logid=5&id=c76bdd...](http://www.ceeol.com/aspx/getdocument.aspx?logid=5&id=c76bdd0173a44e7fa4e0e3fc3b33ea02)

I have no idea why live science is digging it up now.

~~~
anigbrowl
I've seen a _lot_ of this in the last week. I think it's journalists just
reaching into the slush pile and doing a bunch of low-quality articles to meet
their quota over the holiday.

