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| Azrael, the angel of death Evelyn De Morgan (1855-1919) |
For an educated
classical Greek, the number 8 represented death.
Why? Let’s see what this funeral assignment was based on.
- Multiply by 8 the first 8 natural numbers.
- Add the digits for each result.
- If the total obtained has more than one digit,
we add those digits again.
Multiply
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Add digits
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2nd addition
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1×8=8
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8
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8
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2×8=16
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1+6=7
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7
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3×8=24
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2+4=6
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6
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4×8=32
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3+2=5
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5
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5×8=40
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4+0=4
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4
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6×8=48
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4+8=12
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1+2=3
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7×8=56
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5+6=11
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1+1=2
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8×8=64
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6+4=10
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1+0=1
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Observe that we obtain the sequence 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1. For the Greeks,
this succession starts at 8 and descends to die
at 1. That is why number 8 represented death.
