The Swastika, the Earliest Known Symbol, and Its Migration: With Observations on the Migration of Certain Industries in Prehistoric TimesWilson, Thomas
Religion
The Swastika, the Earliest Known Symbol, and Its Migration: With Observations on the Migration of Certain Industries in Prehistoric Times
Wilson, Thomas
Industries, Primitive; Swastikas; Symbolism
_Triskelion, Sicily._--Now we pass to the consideration of the triskelion
of Sicily. Fig. 227 represents a coin of Sicily. On the obverse the head
of Persephone, on the reverse the quadriga, and above, the triskelion.
Other specimens of the same kind, bearing the same triskelion, are seen in
Barclay Head's work on the "Coinage of Syracuse" and his "Guide to the
Ancient Coins in the British Museum." They belong to the early part of the
reign of Agathocles, B. C. 317 to 310. In these specimens the triskelion
is quite small; but as the coins belong to the period of the finest
engraving and die-sinking of Greece, the representation, however minute,
is capable of decipherment. Fig. 228 is taken from the shield of a warrior
on a Greek vase representing Achilles and Hector, in which the armorial
emblem of Sicily, the triskelion, occupies the entire field,[231] and
represents plainly that it is three human legs, conjoined at the thigh,
bent sharply at the knee, with the foot and toes turned out. Some of these
have been represented covered with mail armor and the foot and leg booted
and spurred. It is evident that these are human legs, and so were not
taken from the screw propeller of Lycia, while they have no possible
relation to the crossed arms of the Swastika, and all this despite their
similarity of appearance. This is rendered clearer by Waring,[232] where
the armorial emblem on a warrior's shield is a single human leg, bent in
the same manner, instead of three. Apropos of Swastikas on warriors'
shields, reference is made to figs. 257 and 258, which represent two
shields of Pima Indians, New Mexico, both of which have been in battle and
both have the four-armed Swastika or tetraskelion. There is not in the
Swastika, nor was there ever, any central part, any hub, any axis, any
revolution. It is asserted that originally the triskelion of Sicily,
possibly of Lycia, was a symbol of the sun, morning, midday, and
afternoon, respectively. But this was purely theoretical and without other
foundation than the imagination of man, and it accordingly gave way in due
course. Pliny denies this theory and attributes the origin of the
triskelion of Sicily to the triangular form of the island, ancient
Trinacria, which consisted of three large capes equidistant from each
other, pointing in their respective directions, the names of which were
Pelorus, Pachynus, and Lilybæum. This statement, dating to so early a
period, accounting for the triskelion emblem of Sicily, is much more
reasonable and ought to receive greater credit than that of its devolution
from the Swastika, which theory is of later date and has none of these
corroborations in its favor. We should not forget in this argument that
the Swastika in its normal form had been for a long time known in Greece
and in the islands and countries about Sicily.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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