Map

number

Five

Numbers & forms

A count of fingers, and in some Chinese schemes a count of phases and directions. The schemes are local; they are not a universal pentagram.

Chinese tradition

  • Five is opposed to Four.

    Four directions and fivefold Chinese schemes are easy to rhyme. They are different local maps of the world, not a debate the numbers themselves are having.

    opposed to · interpretive · culturally specific

  • Square is used in Five.

    In Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture, a brick five palms square is called pentadoron — five palms set that square brick module used in public buildings.

    from Vitruvius; Morris Hicky Morgan (translation) · De Architectura, 1st century BCE; Morgan English 1914

    used in · sourced · documented

  • Perfect number is associated with Five.

    In Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture, five is named five sixths (pentamoiros) in the same modular reckoning where six is the perfect number — five sits in that perfect-number ratio series.

    from Vitruvius; Morris Hicky Morgan (translation) · De Architectura, 1st century BCE; Morgan English 1914

    associated with · sourced · documented

  • Fifteen is used in Five.

    In Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture, lower shafts are divided into six parts with five forming the thickness at the top in the fifteen-to-twenty band — five of six parts set that top thickness.

    from Vitruvius; Morris Hicky Morgan (translation) · De Architectura, 1st century BCE; Morgan English 1914

    used in · sourced · documented

  • Seventy is used in Five.

    In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, white resin is taken at seventy-five drachmas with sun-baked peseri and melted on the fire — seventy-five is the resin weight of that melt.

    from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century

    used in · sourced · documented

  • Vesica piscis is used in Five.

    In Twining’s Symbols and Emblems, monogram figures enclosed in the vesica piscis appear among numbered plates including five-letter settings — the vesica frames that five-mark enclosure.

    from Louisa Twining · Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediaeval Christian Art, 1852 (new ed. 1885)

    used in · sourced · documented

  • Pentad is used in Five.

    In Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture, a brick five palms square is called pentadoron — five palms define that pentad brick.

    from Vitruvius; Morris Hicky Morgan (translation) · De Architectura, 1st century BCE; Morgan English 1914

    used in · sourced · documented

  • Tetrad is associated with Five.

    In Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture, private buildings use tetradora beside the five-palm pentadoron — tetrad and five-palm bricks are the paired modules.

    from Vitruvius; Morris Hicky Morgan (translation) · De Architectura, 1st century BCE; Morgan English 1914

    associated with · sourced · documented

  • Eighteen is used in Five.

    In Beeton’s Book of Household Management, eggs or fish lie buried about eighteen inches deep until spring — eighteen inches is that bury depth.

    from Isabella Beeton · Book of Household Management, 1861

    used in · sourced · documented

Egyptian religion

  • Five appears in Egyptian religion.

    Plutarch’s On Isis and Osiris names the five epagomenal days on which Osiris, Horus, Typhon, Isis, and Nephthys are born in Egyptian calendar speech. A named five in egyptian-religion under this source, not a generic pentad dump and not a Nephthys entity mint.

    from Plutarch · On Isis and Osiris, c. 100 CE

    appears in · sourced · culturally specific

sources