Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia (pronounced hex-ax-oh-gee-oh-e-eye-hex-en-gen-too-hex-a-pho-be-ah)

Fear of the number 666.

The number 666 is best known from the New Testament’s Book of Revelation (13:15–18) and is a symbol both of the Antichrist and the Devil and is applied to the second of two beasts mentioned in the Book of Revelation.  The construct was the Ancient Greek ἑξακόσιοι (hexakósioi) (six hundred) + ἑξήκοντα (hexḗkonta) (sixty) + ἕξ (héx) (six) +‎ -phobia.  The suffix -phobia (fear of a specific thing; hate, dislike, or repression of a specific thing) was from the New Latin, from the Classical Latin, from the Ancient Greek -φοβία (-phobía) and was used to form nouns meaning fear of a specific thing (the idea of a hatred came later).  For certain historians and biblical scholars for whom 616 is as suspect as 666 there's the companion phobia: Hexakosioihekkaidekaphobia.   The related forms are hexakosioihexekontahexaphobe & hexakosioihexekontahexaphobic.  For help when practicing pronunciation, go to:

https://www.howtopronounce.com/hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia/

The number of the beast

The origin is murky and there are other biblical references but not always as 666; 666 is the number of talents of gold Solomon collected each year and is the number of Adonikam's descendants who return to Jerusalem and Judah from the Babylonian exile and scholars suggest there are latent references in transliteration.   Nebuchadnezzar, the sixth-century BC king of Babylon, appears both as Nebuchadrezzar and Nebuchadrezzur and the number of each name can be calculated because in the Hebrew, letters double as numbers.  Nebuchadrezzar is 663, and Nebuchadrezzur, 669; midway between the two lies 666 and it was Nebuchadrezzar, who came (bidden by God) to crush God's people so may thus prefigure the end of times beast, the antagonistic creature which appears briefly about two-thirds into Revelation’s apocalyptic vision. Some manuscripts of the original Greek use the symbols χξϛ or χξϝ while other manuscripts spell out the number in words.  Using gematria (the method of calculating numbers from names), Nero Caesar transliterated from Greek into Hebrew produces the number 666 whereas the Latin spelling renders 616.  Thus, 666 may be a coded reference to Nero, although that notion does depend on the accepted Hebrew spelling of Caesar, a thing about which there’s some doubt. 

For two millennia there’s never been ecclesiastical or scholarly consensus about 666.  Although the second century Greek cleric Irenaeus affirmed 666, theologians then and since have expressed doubts because of the appearance of 616 in the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, one of the four great uncial codices, as well as in the Latin version of Tyconius and an ancient Armenian version.  Irenaeus knew about 616 but choose, for whatever reason, to correct the Vetus Latina, the existing Latin version of the New Testament.  The oldest known manuscript of Revelation, from Papyrus 115 in the Oxyrhynchus series, uses 616, as does the later Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, even having 616 written in full: ἑξακόσιοι δέκα ἕξ, hexakosioi deka hex (six hundred and sixteen).  These documents are cited by some scholars who suggest 616 was the original, 666 substituted by analogy with 888, the Greek number for Jesus. 

More fun, and just as speculative, is the idea the writers of the time just liked numbers, 666 being more interesting than 616 because:

(1) 666 is a triangular number, the sum of the first 36 natural numbers (ie 1+2+3+4+5+6+...+36=666).  That of course makes 666 the sum total of the numbers on a roulette wheel.  Zero, so often of such significance, here has no effect. 

(2) 666 is the sum of squares of the first seven prime numbers.

(3) In Roman numerals 666 is DCLXVI which has exactly one occurrence of all symbols whose value is less than 1000 in decreasing order (D=500, C=100, L=50, X=10, V=5, I=1).

(4) In base 10, 666 is a repdigit (and therefore a palindromic number) and a Smith number.  A prime reciprocal magic square based on 1/149 in base 10 has a magic total of 666.

The Number of the Beast is 666 (circa 1805), pen and watercolor, by William Blake (1757-1827).

Thanks to popular culture, even beyond Christendom, the number 666 and its relationship with the Devil and the Antichrist is well known and it clearly affects a few.  When in 1989 Ronald Reagan (1911-2004 US president 1981-1989) retired to leafy rich Bel-Air in Los Angeles (a locality which maintained its prestige despite the indignity of the Chevrolet Bel Air between 1950-1972 being reduced from a premium to a basic designation), although happing with the house at 666 St Cloud Road, they soon had the address changed to 668.  Whether this was on advice from Nancy Reagan’s (1921-2016) clairvoyant isn’t recorded but some organs of the US state also chose not to take chances.  US Route 666 (dating from 1926), upon statistical analysis, proved unusually dangerous and after this became public knowledge it picked up the nickname the Devil’s Highway.  In 2003 it was renamed US Highway 491 and the accident rate has lowered although its thought this is due to improvements to the road and a reduction in the number of people stopping to steal road signs, Route 666 a popular destination for stoners to pose for photographs, a thing even in the pre-selfie era.  In more secular Finland, there was apparently little concern, Finair flight AY666 plying the CPH-HEL (Copenhagen-Helsinki) route between 2006-2017, AY666 retired and replaced by AY954 as part of a general restructuring.  AY666’s last flight was on a Friday the 13^th (for the 21^st time) and it landed safely, eight minutes ahead of schedule.

Names for many phobias have been coined and while some (relating to injections, spiders, heights etc) are of clinical significance in mental health, many have been created just for linguistic fun.  A surprising number relate to numbers, many of which reference popular culture (TV, video games etc) and a site exists which provides a précis of many.  The overarching condition is arithmophobia (also known as numerophobia), which is a fear of numbers or mathematics.

Oudenophobia (0), Henophobia (1), Dyophobia (2), Triskaphobia (3), Tetraphobia (4), Pentaphobia (5), Hexaphobia (6), Heptaphobia (7), Octophobia (8), Enneaphobia (9), Decaphobia (10), Hendecaphobia (11). Dodecaphobia (12), Triskaidekaphobia (13), Dekapentophobia (15), Hexadecaphobia (16), Heptadecaphobia (17), Octodecaphobia (18), Enneadecaphobia (19), Eikositriophobia (23), Eikosihexaphobia (26), Triakontenneaphobia (39), Tessarakontadyophobia (42), Tessarakontaheptaphobia (47), Pentekontoctophobia (58), Hexekontadyophobia (62), Hexekontenneaphobia (69), Hebdomekontahenophobia (71), Ogdokontaheptaphobia (87), Enenekontenneaphobia (99), Hekatophobia (100), Hekatohendecaphobia (111), Hekatenenekontahenophobia (191), Diakosioihekkaidekaphobia (216), Diakosioipentekontaphobia (250), Triakosioitriakontatriophobia (333), Tetrakosioeikosiphobia (420). Pentakosioipentekontahenophobia (551), Hexakosioihekkaidekaphobia (616), Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia (666), Heftakosioitessarakontaheptaphobia (747), Enniakosioihendecaphobia (911), Enniakosioenenekontenneaphobia (999), Quattuormiliasescentoruphobia (4600), Tessarakontadyochilahexekontenneaphobia (42069), Compustitusnumerophobia (composite numbers), Meganumerophobia (large numbers), Imparnumerophobia (odd numbers), Omalonumerophobia (even numbers), Piphobia (pi), Phiphobia (the golden ratio), Primonumerophobia (prime numbers), Paranumerophobia (irrational numbers), Neganumerophobia (negative numbers) & Decadisophobia (decimals),

The latest edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR, March 2022) made few changes to the classification anxiety disorders and phobias which had been revised in DSM-5 (2013).  Phobias are categorized as anxiety disorders, with specific phobia (fear of something that poses little or no actual danger) being the most common anxiety disorder.  A specific phobia is said to manifest when a person experiences extreme anxiety when they anticipate exposure or are exposed to a feared stimulus and there are five general categories: (1) animal type (spiders, snakes, dogs etc), (2) the natural environment (tornadoes, heights, water, fire etc), (3) injections and related procedures (needles, medical procedures), (4) situational events (flying, enclosed spaces etc ) & (5) other types (ie phobias that do not fit into the previous four categories).  The fifth category interacts with the introduction of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) which is diagnosed when an individual experiences persistent worry about everyday challenges out of proportion to the perceived threat.  GAD extends to those aware their reaction is one of excessive fear about what can be a non-existent threat and no more than worrying about worrying too much.  Superstitions related to particular numbers are common in many cultures but of themselves these do not constitute a phobia which technically is a diagnosis of reaction to the point where the affect on a patient’s life is clinically significant.  Accordingly, while noting just about anything which has been styled a phobia could induce a case of GAD, few actually satisfy the APA’s diagnostic criteria and the DSM mentions just the handful which constitute the overwhelming majority of cases.

Heptadecaphobia

Heptadecaphobia (pronounced hepp-tah-dech-ah-foh-bee-uh)

Fear of the number 17.

1700s: The construct was the Ancient Greek δεκαεπτά (dekaepta) (seventeen) + φόβος (phobos).  The alternative form is septadecaphobia, troubling some the purists because they regard it as a Greek-Latin mongrel, the construct being the Latin septem (seven) + deca, from the Latin decas (ten), from the Ancient Greek δεκάς (dekás) (ten) + the Ancient Greek φόβος) (phobos) (fear).  Heptadecaphobia deconstructs as hepta- “seven” + deca (ten) + phobos.  The suffix -phobia (fear of a specific thing; hate, dislike, or repression of a specific thing) was from the New Latin, from the Classical Latin, from the Ancient Greek -φοβία (-phobía) and was used to form nouns meaning fear of a specific thing (the idea of a hatred came later).  Purists use the spelling heptadekaphobia to avid the mix.

There are a variety of theories to account for the Italian superstition which had rendered 17 the national “unlucky number”.  The most accepted is that in Roman numerals 17 is XVII which, anagrammatically, translates to VIXI (Latin for “I have lived” (the first-person singular perfect active indicative of vīvō (to live; to be alive)), understood in the vernacular as “my life is over”.  That would have been ominous enough but Romans noted also that Osiris, the Egyptian god of, inter alia, life, death, the afterlife and resurrection, had died on the 17th day of the month, 17 thus obviously a “death number” to the logical Roman mind and the worst 17th days of the month were those which coincided with a full moon, an intensifier in the same sense that in the West the conjunction leading to a Friday the 13th is so threatening.  Mashing up the numerical superstitions, that 17 is an “unlucky number” shouldn’t be surprising because it’s the sum of 13 + 4, the latter being the most dreaded number in much of East Asia.

Just because a “fear of a number” is listed somewhere as a “phobia” doesn’t mean the condition has much of a clinical history or even that a single case is to be found in the literature; many may have been coined just for linguistic fun and students in classics departments have been set assessment questions like “In Greek, construct the word meaning “fear of the number 71” (the correct answer being “hebdomekontahenophobia”).  Some are well documented such as tetraphobia (fear of 4) which is so prevalent in East Asia it compelled BMW to revise the release strategy of the “4 Series” cars and triskaidekaphobia (fear of 13) which has such a history in the West it’s common still for hotels not to have a thirteenth floor or rooms which include “13”, something which in the pre-digital age was a charming quirk but when things were computerized added a needless complication.  The use of the actual number is important because in such a hotel the “14^th” floor is of course the 13^th (in the architectural sense) but there’s little to suggest there’s ever been resistance from guests being allocated room 1414.

Some number phobias are quite specific: Rooted in the folklore of Australian cricket is a supposed association of the number 87 with something bad (typically a batter being dismissed) although it seems purely anecdotal and more than one statistical analysis (cricket is all about numbers) has concluded there's nothing “of statistical significance” to be found and there’s little to suggest players take the matter seriously.  One English umpire famously had “a routine” associated with the score reaching a “repunit” (a portmanteau (or blended) word, the construct being re(eated) +‎ unit) (eg 111, 222, 333 etc) but that was more fetish than phobia.

No fear of 17: Some Lindsay Lohan Seventeen magazine covers.

Other illustrative number phobias include oudenophobia (fear of 0), (trypophobia (fear of holes) said to sometimes be the companion condition), henophobia (fear of 1) (which compels sufferer to avoid being associated with “doing something once”, being the “first in the group” etc) , heptaphobia (fear of 7) (cross-culturally, a number also with many positive associations), eikosiheptaphobia (fear of 27) (a pop-culture thing which arose in the early 1970s when a number of rock stars died messy, drug-related deaths at 27), tessarakontadyophobia (fear of 42) (which may have spiked in patients after the publication of Douglas Adams’ (1952–2001) Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979-1992), enenekontenneaphobia (fear of 99) (thought not related to the Get Smart TV series of the 1960s), tetrakosioeikosiphobia (fear of 420) (the syndrome restricted presumably to weed-smokers in the US), the well-documented hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia (fear of 666), heftakosioitessarakontaheptaphobia (fear of 747) (though with the withdrawal from passenger service of the tough, reliable (four engines and made of metal) Boeing 747 by twin-engined jets made of composites and packed with lithium-ion batteries, a more common fear may be “not flying on a 747”), enniakosioihendecaphobia (fear of 911) (presumably, in the US, sometimes a co-morbidity with tetrakosioeikosiphobia or suffered by those with a bad experience with a pre-modern Porsche 911 when, in inexpert hands, they could behave as one would expect of a very powerful Volkswagen Beetle) and the rare condition nongentiseptuagintatrestrillionsescentiquinquagintanovemmiliacentumtredecimdeciesoctingentivigintiquattuormiliatrecentiphobia (fear of 973,659,113,824,315) (that one created presumably by someone determined to prove it could be done). There’s also compustitusnumerophobia (fear of composite numbers), meganumerophobia (fear of large numbers), imparnumerophobia (fear of odd numbers), omalonumerophobia (fear of even numbers), piphobia (fear of pi), phiphobia (fear of the golden ratio), primonumerophobia (fear of prime numbers), paranumerophobia (fear of irrational numbers), neganumerophobia (fear of negative numbers) and decadisophobia (fear of decimals).  The marvellous Wiki Fandom site and The Phobia List are among the internet’s best curated collection of phobias.

The only one which debatably can’t exist is neonumerophobia (fear of new numbers) because, given the nature of infinity, there can be no “new numbers” although, subjectively, a number could be “new” to an individual so there may be a need.  Sceptical though mathematicians are likely to be, the notion of the “new number” has (in various ways) been explored in fiction including by science fiction (SF or SciFi) author & engineer Robert A Heinlein (1907–1988) in The Number of the Beast (1980), written during his “later period”.  More challenging was Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by English schoolmaster & Anglican priest Edwin Abbott Abbott (1838–1926) which was published under the pseudonym “A Square”, the layer of irony in that choice revealed as the protagonist begins to explore dimensions beyond his two-dimensional world (in Victorian England).  Feminists note also Ursula K Le Guin’s (1929–2018) The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) in which was created an entirely new numerical system of “genderless" numbers”.  That would induce fear in many.

Lindsay Lohan's cover of Edge of Seventeen appeared on the album A Little More Personal (2005).  Written by Stevie Nicks (b 1948), it appeared originally on her debut solo studio album Bella Donna (1981).

In entymology, there are insects with no fear of the number 17.  In the US, the so-called “periodical cicadas” (like those of the genus Magicicada) exist in a 17 year life cycle, something thought to confer a number of evolutionary advantages, all tied directly to the unique timing of their mass emergence: (1) The predator satiation strategy: The creatures emerge in massive numbers (in the billions), their sheer volume meaning it’s physically impossible for predators (both small mammals & birds) to eat enough of them to threaten the survival of the species. (2) Prime number cycles: Insects are presumed to be unaware of the nature of prime numbers but 17 is a prime number and there are also periodic cicadas with a 13 year cycle.  The 13 (Brood XIX) & 17-year (Brood X) periodic cicadas do sometimes emerge in the same season but, being prime numbers, it’s a rare event, the numbers' least common multiple (LCM) being 221 years; the last time the two cicadas emerged together was in 1868 and the next such even is thus expected in 2089.  The infrequency in overlap helps maintain the effectiveness of the predator avoidance strategies, the predators typically having shorter (2-year, 5-year etc) cycles which don’t synchronize with the cicadas' emergence, reducing chances a predator will evolve to specialize in feeding on periodical cicadas. (3) Avoidance of Climate Variability: By remaining underground for 17 years, historically, periodical cicadas avoided frequent climate changes or short-term ecological disasters like droughts or forest fires. The long underground nymph stage also allows them to feed consistently over many years and emerge when the environment is more favorable for reproduction.  Etymologists and biological statisticians are modelling scenarios under which various types of accelerated climate change are being studied to try to understand how the periodic cicadas (which evolved under “natural” climate change) may be affected. (4) Genetic Isolation: Historically, the unusually extended period between emergences has isolated different broods of cicadas, reducing interbreeding and promoting genetic diversity over time, helping to maintain healthy populations over multiple life-cycles.

In automotive manufacturing, there was nothing unusual about unique models being produced for the Italian domestic market, the most common trick being versions with engines displacing less than 2.0 litres to take advantage of the substantially lower tax regime imposed below that mark.  Thus Ferrari (1975-1981) and Lamborghini (1974-1977) made available 2.0 litre V8s (usually variously in 2.5 & 3.0 litre displacements), Maserati a 2.0 V6 (a 3.0 in the Maserati Merak (1972-1983) although it appeared in 2.7 & 3.0 litre form in the intriguing but doomed Citroën SM (1970-1975)) and Mercedes-Benz created a number of one-off 2.0 litre models in the W124 range (1974-1977) exclusive to the Italian domestic market (although an unrelated series of 2.0 litre cars was also sold in India).

US advertisement for the Renault 17 (1974), the name Gordini adopted as a "re-brand" of the top-of-the-range 17TS,  Gordini was a French sports car producer and tuning house, absorbed by Renault in 1968, the name form time-to-time used for high-performance variants of various Renault models.

One special change for the Italian market was a nod to the national heptadecaphobia, the car known in the rest of the world (RoW) as the Renault 17 (1971-1979) sold in Italy as the R177.  For the 17, Renault took the approach which had delivered great profits: use the underpinnings of mundane mass-produced family cars with a sexy new body draped atop.  Thus in the US the Ford Falcon begat the Mustang and in Europe Ford got the Capri from the Taunus/Cortina duo.  Opel’s swoopy GT was (most improbably) underneath just a Kadett.  It wasn’t only the mass-market operators which used the technique because in the mid 1950s, Mercedes-Benz understood the appeal of the style of the 300 SL (W198, 1954-1957) was limited by the high price which was a product of the exotic engineering (the space-frame, gullwing doors, dry sump and the then novel mechanical fuel-injection), the solution being to re-purpose the platform of the W120, the small, austere sedan which helped the company restore its fortunes in the post-war years before the Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) was celebrated in 1959 with the exuberance of the Heckflosse (tailfin) cars (1959-1968).  On the W120 platform was built the 190 SL (W121, 1955-1963), an elegant (it not especially rapid) little roadster which quickly became a trans-Atlantic favourite, particularly among what used to be called the “women’s market”.

Only in Italy: The Renault 177.

Using the same formula, the Renault 17 was built on the underpinnings of the Renault 12, a remarkably durable platform, introduced in 1979 and, in one form or another, manufactured or assembled in more than a dozen countries, the last not produced until 2006.  Like the Ford Capri, the 17 was relatively cheap to develop because so much was merely re-purposed but for a variety of reasons, it never managed to come close to match the sales of the wildly successful Ford, front wheel drive (FWD) not then accepted as something “sporty” and Renault's implementation on the 17 was never adaptable to the new understanding of the concept validated by FWD machines such Volkswagen’s Sirocco GTi & Golf GTi.  Like most of the world, the Italians never warmed to the 17 but presumably the reception would have been even more muted had not, in deference to the national superstition about the number 17, the name been changed to “Renault 177”, the cheaper companion model continuing to use the RoW label: Renault 15.

Armageddon

Armageddon (pronounced ahr-muh-ged-n)

(1) The place where the final battle will be fought between the forces of good and evil.

(2) The last and completely destructive battle; the scene of a decisive conflict on a great scale; any great and crucial conflict. 

(3) A catastrophic and extremely destructive conflict.

(4) In chess, as "armageddon round", an arrangement in some competitions used when a match would otherwise end in a draw, the rules being (1) black wins drawn games and (2) white is granted more time in compensation.

From the biblical Book of Revelation (New Testament 16:16) and the familiar modern use in the figurative sense of a final conflict apparently dates only from 1811.  The actual word was from the Late Latin Armagedōn, from the Ancient Greek Ἁρμαγεδών (Harmagedōn)), from the Hebrew הר מגידו or ‎הַר‎ מְגִדּוֹ‎ (har megiddo) (Mount of Megiddo), the mountain district of Megiddo, in northern Palestine, site of a number of battles mentioned in the Old Testament, most notably that associated with the Last Judgment.

The Last Judgment (circa 1488), triptych by Hieronymus Bosch (circa 1450–1516).

In the Book of Revelation, Armageddon is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies for a battle at the end of times.  Theologically, the western consensus is to interpret this as the battle between good and evil, often expressed as between God and the Kings on earth (Revelation, 16:14).  However, most biblical scholars regard the text as highly symbolic (even cryptic), regarding Mount Armageddon as an idealized location, concluding the final battle between good and evil, while inevitable, may well take place in some other location.  Others are more specific, a sect called the Dispensationalists suggests Armageddon will be a campaign (sometimes dramatically styled as the war of a thousand years) and not a specific battle.  All however agree it will be fought in and for the lands we call the Middle East.

Also disclosed in Revelation is the number of the Beast (Revelation 13:15–18).  In most English translations the number of the beast is 666 (although some early Greek translations prefer 616).

Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.  He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.

And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.  He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.

The unfortunate condition Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia is the fear of the number 666.  It's said to be rare.