03/14/2023
The trinacria in heraldry is a female head with three bent legs (triskelion) moving from it. The coat of arms of the Sicilian Region: yellow and red respectively represent the courage of the cities of Palermo and then of Corleone, which were the first to rise up against the French during the Sicilian vespers of 1282.
The head refers to the gorgons, monsters from Greek mythology with golden wings and characteristic snakes instead of hair. There were three of them and they represented perversions: Euryale represented sexual perversion, Steno moral perversion and Medusa intellectual perversion.
The trinacria is the symbol that represents Sicily and which is therefore represented in its official coat of arms; this association is due to the particular geographical configuration of the island, characterized by three promontories, Passero, Peloro and Lilibeo and three vertices that immediately refer to the triangle.
Scholars confirm that the trinacria is an ancient Eastern religious symbol that represented the sun god in his triple form of spring, summer and winter.
It is only in Roman times that the trinacria loses its intrinsic religious significance to become only the geographical symbol of Sicily.
Precisely at that time, in Palermo, the three-legged gorgon appears in its definitive appearance on the coins, whose head was deprived of the snakes and decorated with ears of corn which gave Sicily its role as granary of the ancient Roman Empire. Thus, Sicily became synonymous with fertility and prosperity.
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