''Nipson anomēmata mē monan opsin'' (), meaning "Wash the sins, not only the face", or "Wash my transgressions, not only my face", is a Greek

palindrome A palindrome (Help:IPA/English, /ˈpæl.ɪn.droʊm/) is a word, palindromic number, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date "Twosday, 02/02/2020" and th ...

The

romanization In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Latin script, Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and tra ...

is not a palindrome because the Greek letter ''ψ'' (

psi Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ or ψ), the twenty-third letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviat ...

) is transcribed by the

digraph Digraph, often misspelled as diagraph, may refer to: * Digraph (orthography), a pair of characters used together to represent a single sound, such as "nq" in Hmong RPA * Ligature (writing), the joining of two letters as a single glyph, such as " ...

''ps''. The modern

diacritics A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...

, which are not symmetrical, are usually omitted from inscriptions of the sentence. that is said to be first inscribed upon a

holy water font A holy water font or stoup is a vessel containing holy water which is generally placed near the entrance of a church. It is often placed at the base of a crucifix or other Christian art. It is used in Catholic, as well as many Lutheran and Angli ...

outside the

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia (; ; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque (; ), is a mosque and former Church (building), church serving as a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The last of three church buildings to be successively ...

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

Origin

The phrase is attributed to the fourth-century Saint

Gregory of Nazianzus Gregory of Nazianzus (; ''Liturgy of the Hours'' Volume I, Proper of Saints, 2 January. – 25 January 390), also known as Gregory the Theologian or Gregory Nazianzen, was an early Roman Christian theologian and prelate who served as Archbi ...

. 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 An ambigram is a calligraphic composition of glyphs (letters, numbers, symbols or other shapes) that can yield different meanings depending on the orientation of observation. Most ambigrams are visual palindromes that rely on some kind of symmetry ...

Examples

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 Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

; * around the baptismal font at St. Michael's Cathedral in

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

; * at the ,

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. * at a fountain inside the church

Panagia Ekatontapiliani Panagia Ekatontapiliani (); literally ''the church with 100 gates'') or Panagia Katapoliani () is a historic Byzantine church complex in Parikia town, on the island of Paros in Greece. The church complex contains a main chapel surrounded by two ...

Parikia __NOTOC__ Parikia (Greek language, Greek: Παροικία) is the capital and the main port of Paros island. It is one of the most typical Cycladic settlements as it is distinguished by its narrow cobbled paths, the old churches, the small shops a ...

on the island

Paros Paros (; ; ) is a Greek island in the central Aegean Sea. Part of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos (island), Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about wide. It lies approximately south-east of Piraeus. The Co ...

* the font of several churches in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, including: St. Stephen d’Egres,

Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, Paris The Church of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul (, ) is a church in the 10th arrondissement of Paris dedicated to Saint Vincent de Paul. It gives its name to the Quartier Saint-Vincent-de-Paul around it. It was built between 1824 and 1844 on the site where ...

, , , and

Basilica of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, Paris The Notre-Dame-des-Victoires () is a minor basilica located on rue Notre-Dame-des-Victoires in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris. It was begun as an Abbey church, and constructed between 1629 and 1740 in the French Baroque architecture, French clas ...

; * in several churches in Britain, including: St. Mary's Church, Nottingham,

Tewkesbury Abbey The Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin, Tewkesbury, commonly known as Tewkesbury Abbey, is located in the town of Tewkesbury in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, England. A former Benedictine monastery, it is now a parish church. Conside ...

(Gloucestershire),

Worlingworth Worlingworth is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England, located around ten miles south-east of Diss, Norfolk, Diss. In 2011 it had a total population of 802 people. The village has a primary school ...

(Suffolk),

Harlow Harlow is a town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a Planned community, new town in 1947, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire, and occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the ...

(Essex),

Knapton Knapton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. Knapton is located south-east of Cromer and north-east of Norwich, along the B1145. History Knapton's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for ...

(Norfolk),

St Martin, Ludgate St Martin, Ludgate, also known as St Martin within Ludgate, is an Anglican church on Ludgate Hill in the ward of Farringdon, in the City of London. The church is of medieval origin, but the present building dates from 1677 to 1684 and was designe ...

(London),

St Ethelburga's Bishopsgate St Ethelburga-the-Virgin within Bishopsgate is a Church of England church in the City of London, located on Bishopsgate near Liverpool Street station. One of the few surviving medieval City churches in London, the foundation date of the church is ...

(London), and Hadleigh (Suffolk);

References

Footnotes

Citations

{{Authority control Byzantine Greek inscriptions Hagia Sophia Medieval Christian inscriptions Palindromes Ritual purity in Christianity

Origin

Examples

See also

References

Footnotes

Citations