This, with the statement of Perrot and Chipiez ([p. 872] of this paper), is a step in explanation of the adoption of the triskelion, and together they suggest strongly that it had no relation to the Swastika. At the date of the appearance of the triskelion on the Lycian coins the Swastika was well known throughout the Trojan peninsula and the Ægean Sea, and the difference between them was so well recognized that one could not possibly have been mistaken for the other.

Fig. 227.
SICILIAN COIN WITH QUADRIGA AND TRISKELION.
British Museum. Barclay Head, “Coins of the Ancients,” etc., pl. 35, fig. 28.

Fig. 228.
WARRIOR’S SHIELD.
From a Greek vase, representing
Achilles and Hector. Agrigentum,
Sicily. Waring, “Ceramic Art in
Remote Ages,” pl. 42, fig. 24.

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.

Among hundreds of patterns of the Swastika belonging to both hemispheres and to all ages, none of them have sought to represent anything else than just what they appear to be, plain marks or lines. There is no likeness between the plain lines of the Swastika and the bent form of the human leg, with the foot turned outward, incased in chain armor and armed with spurs.

Whenever or however the triskelion occurred, by whom it was invented, what it represented, how it comes to have been perpetuated, is all lost in antiquity and may never be known; but there does not seem to be any reason for believing it to have been an evolution from the Swastika.