The Sicilian Flag
Trinacria is the island's symbol. It is a Gorgon's head whose hair consists of braded snakes and ears of wheat, and it symbolizes Sicily's fertility. Three legs bent at the knee radiate from its head.
Gorgon was the name given to the mythological daughters of Forco and Ceto, two gods of the sea usually described with wild boar tusks, bronze hands, golden wings and snakes wrapped around their head and waist. According to Hesiod, they were Medusa (the Gorgon for antonomasia), Stheno (the mighty) and Euryale (the far-springer). The Gorgons had the power to turn to stone anyone who gazed at them, and lived with Atlante's daughters, the Hesperydes, on a blissful island in a remote western corner of the world.
The three legs represent the extreme points (triskeles means three corners) of Sicily, Capo Peloro (also called Punta del Faro) in Messina district, Capo Passero, a few kilometres from Syracuse, and Capo Lilibeo (also called Capo Boeo), near Marsala. Number three is also related to the morphology of the island, with three promontories and three vertex (from Latin triquetra and Greek treis akra ).
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Scholars have suggested a relation between the three legs symbol and oriental religions, basing their theory on the finding of a Trinacria symbol on a statue of Baal - the Phoenician god of water, springs and fertility - and above the image of a monumental bull in Tunisia. Furthermore, it has been linked to an image of the Moon depicted while holding three scythes, bent at the center and turning to the right as the legs of Trinacria.
A further evidence of Trinacria’s symbolic value for Sicily is the fact that on August 30th 1302, after the Peace of Caltabellotta - which ended Sicilian Vespers’ War and the dispute between the Angevins and Sicilians allied with the Aragonese - the island was named Kingdom of Trinacria and considered a separate territory from the Reign of Naples ruled by Frederick III of Aragon. Trinacria is depicted on the coat of arms of several dynasties: the dynasty of the Stuart of Albany, which probably derived the symbol from its properties on the Isle of Man, in the Irish Sea; the Rabensteiner in France; the Schanke in Denmark; the Drocomir in Poland. Likewise, Gioacchino Murat’s coat of arms of, when Napoleon appointed him King of the two Sicilies in the early 1800, featured a Trinacria.
Today Trinacria’s symbol is featured on the Sicilian flag approved by our Regional Government in 2000. As required by law, it is to be displayed outside the buildings of our Regional Assembly, Regional Administration, Provincial Council, Town Council, and the seats of Presidents of Provinces and Majors. It has also to be shown outside schools of every level and universities, and outside polling stations during general elections of the Sicilian Parliament.