Chart I.—Probable introduction of the Swastika into different countries, according to Count Goblet d’Alviella.

[“La Migration des Symboles,” pl. 3.]

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Count Goblet d’Alviella, in the fourth section of the second chapter[91] relating to the country of its origin, argues that the Swastika sign was employed by all the Aryans except the Persians. This omission he explains by showing that the Swastika in all other lands stood for the sun or for the sun-god, while the Aryans of Persia had other signs for the same thing—the Crux ansata and the winged globe. His conclusion is[92] that there were two zones occupied with different symbols, the frontier between them being from Persia, through Cyprus, Rhodes, and Asia Minor, to Libya; that the first belonged to the Greek civilization, which employed the Swastika as a sun symbol; the second to the Egypto-Babylonian, which employed the Crux ansata and the winged globe as sun symbols.

Professor Sayce, in his preface to “Troja,” says:[93]

The same symbol [the Swastika], as is well known, occurs on the Archaic pottery of Cyprus * * * as well as upon the prehistoric antiquities of Athens and Mykênæ [same, “Ilios,” p. 353], but it was entirely unknown to Babylonia, to Assyria, to Phœnicia, and to Egypt. It must therefore either have originated in Europe and spread eastward through Asia Minor or have been disseminated westward from the primitive home of the Hittites. The latter alternative is the more probable; but whether it is so or not, the presence of the symbol in the land of the Ægean indicates a particular epoch and the influence of a pre-Phœnician culture.

Dr. Schliemann[94] reports that “Rev. W. Brown Keer observed the Swastika innumerable times in the most ancient Hindu temples, especially those of the Jainas.”

Max Müller cites the following paragraph by Professor Sayce:[95]

It is evident to me that the sign found at Hissarlik is identical with that found at Mycenæ and Athens, as well as on the prehistoric pottery of Cyprus (Di Cesnola, Cyprus, pls. 44 and 47), since the general artistic character of the objects with which this sign is associated in Cyprus and Greece agrees with that of the objects discovered in Troy. The Cyprian vase [[fig. 156], this paper] figured in Di Cesnola’s “Cyprus,” pl. 45, which associates the Swastika with the figure of an animal, is a striking analogue of the Trojan whorls, on which it is associated with the figure of the stags. The fact that it is drawn within the vulva of the leaden image on the Asiatic goddess shown in fig. 226 (“Ilios,” [fig. 125] this paper) seems to show that it was a symbol of generation.