Triskelion

A triskelion or triskeles is an ancient motif consisting either of a triple spiral exhibiting rotational symmetry or of other patterns in triplicate that emanate from a common center. The spiral design can be based on interlocking Archimedean spirals, or represent three bent human limbs. It occurs in artefacts of the European Neolithic and Bronze Ages with continuation into the Iron Age, especially in the context of the La Tène culture and of related Celtic traditions. The actual triskeles symbol of three human legs is found especially in Greek antiquity, beginning in archaic pottery and continued in coinage of Classical Greece.

In the Hellenistic period, the symbol became associated with the island of Sicily, appearing on coins minted under Dionysius I of Syracuse beginning in c. 382 BCE. It later appears in heraldry, and, other than in the flag of Sicily, came into use in the arms and flags of the Isle of Man (known in the Manx language as ny tree cassyn 'the three legs').

Greek τρισκελής (triskelḗs) means 'three-legged' from τρι- (tri-), 'three times' and σκέλος (skelos), 'leg'. While the Greek adjective τρισκελής 'three-legged' (e.g. of a table) 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). The form triskelion (as it were Greek τρισκέλιον) is a diminutive which entered English usage in numismatics in the late-19th century. 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 triple spiral symbol, or three-spiral volute, appears in many early cultures: the first appeared in Malta (4400–3600 BCE); the second in the astronomical calendar of the megalithic tomb of Newgrange in Ireland built around 3200 BCE; as well as on Mycenaean vessels. The Neolithic-era symbol of three conjoined spirals may have had triple significance similar to the imagery that lies behind the triskelion. It is carved into the rock of a stone lozenge near the main entrance of the prehistoric Newgrange monument in what is now County Meath, Ireland. It also appears on a 1st-century BCE dolmen tomb in Rathkenny in County Meath.

There is also an example of a triskele on a stone fragment discovered in Gloucestershire, England, that, as of 2023, is held by the British Museum and thought to date from between the Neolithic period and the Bronze Age.

The triskelion was a motif in the art of the Iron Age Celtic La Tène culture.

The triskeles proper, composed of three human legs, is younger than the triple spiral found in decorations on Greek pottery, especially as a design shown on Hoplite shields and later Greek and Anatolian coinage. An early example is found on the Shield of Achilles in an Attic hydria of the late-6th century BCE. It is found on coinage in Lycia and on staters of Pamphylia (at Aspendos in 370–333 BCE) and Pisidia. The meaning of the Greek triskeles is not recorded directly. The Duke of 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.^{[citation needed]} From this, he reconstructed a feminine divine triad that he identified with the triple goddess Hecate.

The triskeles was adopted as emblem by the rulers of Syracuse. It is possible that this usage is related with the Greek name of the island of Sicily, Τρινακρία (Trinacria) 'having three headlands'. The Sicilian triskeles is shown with the head of Medusa at the center. The ancient symbol has been re-introduced in modern flags of Sicily since 1848. The oldest find of a triskeles in Sicily is a vase dated to the late-7th century BCE of which researchers speculated a Minoan-Mycenaean origin (and for which no proof has been given).