The three legs (triskeles) symbol is rarely found as a charge in late medieval heraldry, notably as the arms of the King of Mann ( Armorial Wijnbergen, c. The triple spiral design is found as a decorative element in Gothic architecture. In Ireland before the 5th century, in Celtic Christianity the symbol took on new meaning, as a symbol of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). carved in rock in Castro Culture settlement in Galicia, Asturias and Northern Portugal. Late examples of the triple spiral symbols are found in Iron Age Europe, e.g. The oldest find of a triskeles in Sicily is a vase dated to 700 BCE, for which researchers assume a Minoan-Mycenaean origin. The ancient symbol has been re-introduced in modern flags of Sicily since 1848.
The Sicilian triskeles is shown with the head of Medusa at the center. It is possible that this usage is related with the Greek name of the island of Sicily, Trinacria (Τρινακρία "having three headlands"). The triskeles was adopted as emblem by the rulers of Syracuse. įrom this, he reconstructed feminine divine triad which he identified with the "triple goddess" Hecate. The Duc de Luynes in his 1835 study noted the co-occurrence of the symbol with the eagle, the cockerel, the head of Medusa, Perseus, three crescent moons, three ears of corn, and three grains of corn. The meaning of the Greek triskeles is not recorded directly. It is found on coinage in Lycia, and on staters of Pamphylia (at Aspendos, 370–333 BCE) and Pisidia. The triskeles proper, composed of three human legs, is younger than the triple spiral, found in decorations on Greek potteryĮspecially as a design shown on hoplite shields, and later also minted on Greek and Anatolian coinage.Īn early example is found on the shield of Achilles in an Attic hydria of the late 6th century BCE. Reverse: Triskeles of three human legs with winged feet at the center, Gorgoneion Inscription: ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙΩΝ ("Syrakosion") Laureate head of the youthful Ares to left behind, Palladion. Silver Drachma from Sicily, minted during the reign of Agathocles (361–289 BCE), Greek tyrant of Syracuse (317–289 BCE) and king of Sicily (304–289 BCE). The triskelion was a motif in the art of the Iron age Celtic La Tène culture. There is also an example of a Triskele on a stone fragment that was discovered in Gloucestershire, currently held by the British museum thought to date from the period from the Neolithic period up to Bronze age.
It also appears on a 1st century BC dolmen tomb in Rathkenny, County Meath. Newgrange, which was built around 3200 BCE. It is carved into the rock of a stone lozenge near the main entrance of the prehistoric Newgrange monument in County Meath, Ireland. The Neolithic era symbol of three conjoined spirals may have had triple significance similar to the imagery that lies behind the triskelion. The triple spiral symbol, or three spiral volute, appears in many early cultures, the first in Malta (4400–3600 BCE) and in the astronomical calendar at the famous megalithic tomb of Newgrange in Ireland built around 3200 BCE, as well as on Mycenaean vessels. Use in European antiquity Neolithic to Iron Age ĥ,000 year-old triskelion on an orthostat at Newgrange The form consisting of three human legs (as opposed to the triple spiral) has also been called a " triquetra of legs", also triskelos or triskel. The form triskelion (as it were Greek τρισκέλιον ) is a diminutive which entered English usage in numismatics in the late 19th century.
While the Greek adjective τρισκελής "three-legged " is ancient, use of the term for the symbol is modern, introduced in 1835 by Honoré Théodoric d'Albert de Luynes as French triskèle, and adopted in the spelling triskeles following Otto Olshausen (1886). Greek τρισκελής ( triskelḗs) means "three-legged". It later appears in heraldry, and, other than in the flag of Sicily, came to be used in the flag of the Isle of Man (known as ny tree cassyn "the three legs"). In the Hellenistic period, the symbol becomes associated with the island of Sicily, appearing on coins minted under Dionysius I of Syracuse beginning in c. The actual triskeles symbol of three human legs is found especially in Greek antiquity, beginning in archaic pottery and continued in coinage of the classical period. It is found in artefacts of the European Neolithic and Bronze Age with continuation into the Iron Age especially in the context of the La Tène culture and related Celtic traditions. The spiral design can be based on interlocking Archimedean spirals, or represent three bent human legs. A triskelion or triskeles is an ancient motif consisting of a triple spiral exhibiting rotational symmetry or other patterns in triplicate that emanate from a common center.
0 kommentar(er)
