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 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.

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.

[6] 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,[7] and adopted in the spelling triskeles following Otto Olshausen (1886).

The Neolithic-era symbol of three conjoined spirals may have had triple significance similar to the imagery that lies behind the triskelion.

[14] It is carved into the rock of a stone lozenge near the main entrance of the prehistoric Newgrange monument in now County Meath, Republic of Ireland.

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

[citation needed] From this, he reconstructed a feminine divine triad that he identified with the triple goddess Hecate.

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).

[22] Late examples of the triple spiral symbols are found in Iron Age Europe, carved in rock in Castro Culture settlements in Galicia, Asturias, and Northern Portugal.

[29] Other uses of triskelion-like emblems include the logo for the Trisquel Linux distribution and the seal of the United States Department of Transportation.