Labyrinth, Chakravyuha and Coins

 

The motif of the labyrinth has a long history. Depiction in rock art may date back as far as 10,500-4800 BC, and can be found across Europe, Africa, America and Asia. The labyrinth shares the same form, a unicursal meandering, turning and changing directions from outside to the center but never crossing itself.

                                             

Crete, Knossos, Drachm, 200 BC, coin depicting Labyrinth

The first ancient author to use the term ''labyrinth'' was the Greek historian Herodotus, in the 5th century BC. He referred to the Egyptian not Cretan labyrinth 

Labyrinth in Greek mythology was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to capture the Minotaur, the mythical creature that was half man and half bull and eventually killed by Theseus. Daedalus had so cunningly made the Labyrinth that he could barely escape it after he built it.

                                               

            Cretan Labyrinth image
  

                                           

       Theseus in the Minotaur's labyrinth
      

                 

Minotaur, with a body of a man and head of a bull

The Bronze Age site at Knossos was excavated by Arthur Evans in the early 20th century. Although early Cretan coins occasionally exhibit branching patterns, the single-path seven-course ''Classical'' design without branching or dead ends became associated with the Labyrinth on coins as early as 430 BC.                                                   

   

A seven-course ''Classical'' design on a Coin

In English, the term labyrinth is generally synonymous with Maze. Unicursal labyrinths appeared as designs on pottery or basketry or in etchings on walls or caved or churches. 

                                           

Theseus and the Minotaur, ancient pottery
    

                                                

Medieval Minotaur with a bull's body and a man's head, from ''Liber Floridus'' by Lambert of Saint-Omer

Pliny's (Gaius Plinius Secundus AD 23/24-79, called Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author) ''Natural History'', one of the largest works to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, gives four examples of ancient labyrinths, the Cretan labyrinth, the Egyptian labyrinth, the Italian labyrinth and a Lemnian labyrinth.

                                                   

Naturalis Historia, 1669 edition, title page. The title at the top reads, ''Volume I of the Natural History of Gaius Pinius Secundus''

                                                 

Statue of Pliny the Elder on the facade of Cathedral of S. Maria Maggiore in Como

 

A design identical to the seven-course pattern appeared in Native American culture, the Tohono Oódham people labyrinth which features Iitoi, the ''Man in the Maze'' although it has its entrance at the top.

                                            

Egyptian labyrinth on the side of the Middle Kingdom pyramid of Amenemhet III, 1845 BC at Hawara in the Fayoum District. The labyrinth has 12 covered courts in six rows. Inside the building is of two stories and contains 3000 rooms, of which half are underground and the other half above them.

In India, the ''Padmavyuha'' or ''Chakravyuha'' depict the labyrinth, and it is described in the ancient epic, ''Mahabharata''. The Chakravyuha was arranged by the Kauravas to fight the Pandavas in which Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna was trapped and killed. Abhimanyupur, within the 48 kos parikrama of Kurukshetra in Haryana is identified as the site of the Chakravyuha. Examples have been found among cave art in northern India, on a dolmen shrine in the Nilgiri mountains and also as some plans of forts in India.

                                           

Map with description of 48 kos parikrama (approx. 96 miles circle) around the city of Kurukshetra, displayed at Ban Ganga/ Bhishma Kund

                            

Ancient intricate carving depicting usage of foot soldiers, archers, elephants in Chakravyuha

                                           

                                            

Chakravyuha, from the Razmnama (Book of War), a Persian translation of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, commissioned by the Mughal Emperor Akbar between 1584-1586 AD. Copy can be found in the ''City Palace Museum'' of Jaipur

By the White Sea, notably on the Solovetsky Islands, there have been preserved more than 30 stone labyrinths, the most remarkable being the Stone labyrinths of Bolshoi Zayatsky Island.

                                            

Section of one of the largest stone labyrinths on Bolshoi Zayatsky Island

The other labyrinths found across the world are as shown    

                                           

Labyrinth at Meis, Galicia, from the Atlantic Bronze Age

                                               

Earliest securely dated labyrinth, incised on a clay tablet from Pylos, 1200 BC

                                                    

Chartres pattern as a wall maze in Lucca Cathedral, Italy 12th-13th century

Coins with Labyrinth

                                            

Knossos, Crete, 200-67 BC, Tetradrachm, weight 14.8 g

Obverse: Diademed bearded head of Zeus, right

Reverse: Labyrinth

                                           

Crete, Knossos, Stater, 330-300 BC

Obverse: Female head (Ariadne or Pasiphae), left

Reverse: Labyrinth in form of swastika, four crescents between arms, five pellets in center

                                           

Crete, Knossos, Stater, 350-200 BC

Obverse: Female head right, in single pendant earring and necklace

Reverse: Labyrinth

                                          

Crete, Knossos, Drachm, 330-300 BC

Obverse: Head of Hera, left, necklace and earring

Reverse: Labyrinth in form of square with entrance at top, flanked by letters A-P


                                          

Crete, Knossos, 220 BC. Alliance between Knossos and Gortyna

Obverse: Europa on bull left, two dolphins below

Reverse: Labyrinth of Minos, star above between the K and N

                                           

Crete, Knossos, 440 BC, Stater

Obverse: Minotaur running right

Reverse: Labyrinth, swastika type, five pellets in the center

 

                                             

Crete, Knossos, Stater, 360-330 BC

Obverse: Head of Hera, left

Reverse: Labyrinth

Labyrinth

Crete at Knossos

Minotaur

Egyptian Labyrinth

Padmavyuha

Chakravyuha

Razmnama

Solovetsky Labyrinth

Coins with labyrinth

Triskeles, Triskelion, Celtic and Buddhist Symbolism and Ancient Coins

 

The Triskeles symbol, otherwise known as the Triskelion, is a trilateral symbol consisting of three interlocked spirals. The triple spiral is found in artefacts of the Neolithic (7000 BC -1700 BC) and Bronze age (started with Aegean Bronze Age in 3200 BC - 600 BC) with continuation into the Iron Age specially in the context of La Tene culture and related Celtic traditions.

                                            

Roman Republic, The Pompeians, 49 BC, Triskeles with winged facing head of Medusa 

                                                       

Neolithic triple spiral symbol: Triskelion

The triple spiral symbol appears in many early cultures. In Malta (4400-3600 BC), in the astronomical calendar at the famous megalithic tomb of Newgrange in Ireland built around 3200 BC, which makes it older than the Egyptian pyramids, and on the Mycenaean vessels 

                                                

Newgrange, in County Meath, was a passage tomb-built centuries before Egypt's Great Pyramids and features several triskelion designs

                                           

Mycenaean Gold Tankard with Triskele motif, Greece, from tomb 5 of Circle of Mycenae, 1600 -1500 BC, National Archaeological Museum, Athens.

                                           

Beaked Jug (ewer) decorated with triple spirals. Late Helladic III, 1400-1350 BC

In Ireland, the triskelion is widely accepted as a Celtic symbol, but its origins predate even the arrival of the Celts in the British Isles. It gained popularity from 500 BC onwards, the same time that Buddhism evolved in India 

                                            

Newgrange Chamber showing the Tri-Spiral engraving

The triskeles, composed of three human legs, is younger than the triple spiral and is found on Greek pottery and later also minted on Greek and Anatolian coinage. The three legs of the triskelion seem to move outwards from the center suggesting motion and the cyclicality of nature. 

                                           

The first instances of triskelion featured three bent legs. The image is commonly found in the Mediterranean Island of Malta (Shepard/ Flickr)  

It is also found on the shield of Achilles in an Attic hydria of the late 6th century BC. It is found on the coinage in Lycia and the Mahajanapada coins of India in the 6th to 5th century BC.

Late examples of the triple symbols are found in Iron age Europe in the carved in rock in Castro Culture settlement in Galicia, Asturias and Northern Portugal. In Celtic Christianity, the symbol took a new meaning, as a symbol of the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit)

                                       

Triskelion of the oppidum of Coeliobriga (Galicia)

      

The triple spiral design is found as the arms of the King of Mann (1280 AD) and as canting arms in the seal of Bavarian city of Fussen (1317 AD).

                                           

Arms of Sir John I Stanley of the Isle of Mann, 1414 AD, first Stanley King of Mann

 The flag of Sicily has the triskeles and Gorgoneion symbol

                                                

                   Flag of Sicily

Buddhist symbol. The triskelion symbol is also a Buddhist meditational symbol. Triskeles are frequently seen in the center of Dharma wheels, four pronged vajras and auspicious symbol mandalas

                                           

Dharamchakra of Buddhism, with a triskelion in the center

There are various interpretations about the meaning of the symbol. Some thought of earth, water and sky, or life, death and rebirth, or past, present and future, physical, spiritual and celestial, mind, body and spirit, creation, preservation and destruction and many more.

The spirals found on ancient tombs have been drawn in one continuous line and speculate that this represents life and death

                                            

Spirals on ancient tombs, signifying life, death and rebirth

By the 5th century, when Ireland and the British Isles were the last two strongholds of Celtic culture, the symbol was incorporated seamlessly into Christian iconography as it was identified as the Holy Trinity. It found its way in famed illustrations in the ''Book of Kells'', and. on windows of Golthic cathedrals all over Europe

                                            

Triskele patterns on the page from the ''Book of Kells''

Today in addition to decorating the flags of Sicily and the Isle of Mann, it is also the insignia of the Irish Air Corps. 

                                         

Irish Air Corps uses a white, orange and green triskelion

In Japanese Shinto culture, the deity Hachiman (the god who instructs war) has a triskelion like symbol called a ''tomoe''. One of the symbols of Tibetan Buddhism called a ''Gankyil'', a triple spiral called a ''wheel of joy'' and represents ground, path and fruit or desire, hatred and ignorance, or learning, reflection and meditation. The Korean ''Taegeuk'' is of a similar design and is associated with both Korean Daoism and shamanism.

                                           

Buddhist Meditation Emblem with a triskele in the center

The triskelion's worldwide spread since ancient times is well known, however it is still widely recognized as a Celtic symbol. 

Celtic and Buddhist Symbolism. Very interesting research leads to Saint Origen's (184-253 AD), who was an early Christian scholar and has been described as the greatest genius the early church ever produced) statement that Buddhists and Druids (Druids were members of the high-ranking class in Celtic culture as religious leaders and legal authorities) co-existed in pre-Christian Britain and Ireland. Ashoka's missions spreading Buddhism as far as Europe, probably influenced the Druids, who also had similar beliefs. Buddhist teachings slowly integrated into the Celtic culture, and before Christianity spread in Britain and Ireland, these symbols got integrated. Pages 42 and 43 of the book titled ''Buddhism in the Celtic Area'' state the confluence of the two

                                           

                                                

Triskeles on Coins

                                         

Roman Republic, The Pompeians, 49 BC, denarius, weight 3.8 g

Obverse: Triskeles, with winged facing head of Medusa, at center, ear of grain between each leg

Reverse: Jupiter standing right, holding thunderbolt and eagle, harpa to right

                                           

Wekhssere I,460-435 AD, Trihemiobol, Patara, weight 1.3 g

Obverse: Head of Athena right wearing helmet

Reverse: Triskeles within dotted frame in incuse square

                                            

Lycia, Perikles, 380-360 BC,1/3 Stater, silver, weight 3.1 g

Obverse: Lions scalp facing

Reverse: Triskeles to left, draped bust of Apollo, facing left, all within incuse

                                             

Thessaly, Larissa, 5th century BC, Hemiobol, 0.4 g

Obverse: Bull's hoof, border of dots

Reverse: Triskeles with the face of a gorgoneion, two snakes emerge from the top of its head, all in an incuse

                                            

Pamphylia, Aspendo, 465-430 BC, Oboi, weight .94 g

Obverse: Vase with handle

Reverse: Triskeles, within incuse

 Triskeles on Janapada Coins

                                          

India, Andhra Janapada, 340-265 BC, 1/2 Karshapana, weight 1.6g

Obverse: 4 punches, elephant left, triskeles surrounded by pellets and taurine symbol in square

Reverse: Blank

                                           

India, Maghada Janapada, Nanda dynasty, karshapana, silver, weight 3.4 g

Obverse: Punches showing six-armed symbol sun, bull, rabbit upon the five arched hill, two circles placed side by side and surrounded by eight taurines

Reverse: Triskele and other indistinct symbols

                                               

    

India, Kuru Janapada, 450-350 BC, 1/2 Karshapana, weight 1.5 g

Obverse: Triskele with crescent and dots

Reverse: six-armed symbol

                                           

 

India, Kuntala Janapada, 650-450 BC, 1/2 shatamana, weight 6.8 g

Obverse: Pulley design, triskele above

Reverse: blank

                                            

India, Malla Janapada, 500-400 BC, 1/2 karshapana, weight 2.03 g

Obverse: triskeles and a symbol

Reverse: Undertype with floral symbol

Triskelion

Triskeles

Triskeles on Coins

Celtic Buddhism

Mahajanapadas coins and triskeles