Among the votive inscriptions of magistrates in Greek cities there exist a number of dedications to the goddess Aphrodite. J. and L. Robert in Rev. ét. gr. 72 (1959), 229–230, draw attention to these singular pieces of evidence and explain them in reference to a characteristic of Aphrodite as a patroness of friendship and of harmony. The devotion of magistrates to the goddess of love, apart from all that we know about her in the life of antiquity, displays such an astonishing singularity that a further approach and investigation seem to be expedient.

In the argument preceding Book I of Paradise Lost, Milton chooses to emphasize at the outset one aspect of his conception of time. He summarizes Satan's report to the fallen angels, and adds “for that Angels were long before the visible Creation, was the opinion of many ancient Fathers.” Nowhere else in these prefatory “arguments” does he feel it necessary to make any explanatory statements about the cosmology of the poem. Here, however, he calls attention to a belief that was in conflict with the prevailing Christian view. But, as Milton realized, the reader must grasp this heterodox belief of his in order to understand the whole design of the poem.

As far as form is concerned, the gap between Lat. abyssus, “abyss,” and its nasalized Romance congeners of the type abism-is difficult to explain. The two prevalent interpretations are somewhat artificial and unsatisfactory. They are presented by Wartburg, who postulates analogy to the suffix -ismus (Französisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [FEW], I, 11), and by Corominas, who posits a basis *abyssissimus reduced to *abissimus (Diccionario crítico etimológico de la lengua castellana, I, 9).

Since the discovery at Pompeii of specimens of the ROTAS-SATOR rebus scholarly investigation into the origin of the “magic square” has been bedevilled by a fundamental problem. Is it or is it not sheer chance that the letters of the square can be rearranged in two intersecting PATER NOSTER's with two A's and two O's remaining to be positioned at will?