Nipson anomemata me monan opsin

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

ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ (translation: Wash your sins, not only your face), Hagia Sophia in Constantinople

Origin

The phrase is attributed to the fourth-century Saint Gregory of Nazianzus.[2]

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, Thessaloniki, Greece.[4]
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, St. Pierre de Chaillot, 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);

References

Footnotes

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

Blake, Barry J. (2010). Secret Language: Codes, Tricks, Spies, Thieves, and Symbols. Oxford: University Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-19-957928-0.
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.
Langford-James, R. A Dictionary of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Ayer. p. 61. ISBN 0-8337-5047-X.
"Wash the sins, not only the face". Flickr. 2012-07-20. Retrieved 2013-10-01.

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[3] 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.

[1] Blake, Barry J. (2010). Secret Language: Codes, Tricks, Spies, Thieves, and Symbols. Oxford: University Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-19-957928-0.

[EPP-2] 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.