The Trinacria

Sicily is also nicknamed Trinacria. What does it represent?
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The trinacria is a female head with three bent legs (triskeles) moving from it in an anti-clockwise direction.

The head refers to gorgons, monsters from Greek mythology with golden wings and the characteristic snakes instead of hair.

The three legs represent the three promontories that give the island its triangular shape and refer to the extreme points of the island: Cape Peloro, or Punta del Faro in Messina, Capo Passero in Syracuse, Capo Lilibeo, or Capo Boeo, in Marsala. The Triscele was later adopted by the Greeks as a symbol of Trinacria, which remained a synonym for Sicily.

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In ancient times it was an ancient religious symbol that represented the sun god in his triple form of spring, summer and winter. This is evidenced by ancient coins from the 6th and 4th centuries BC

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It is only in Roman times that the trinacria lost its intrinsic religious meaning to become solely the geographical symbol of Sicily. Precisely in that era, 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 wheat

which gave Sicily its role as the granary of the ancient Roman Empire.

Thus, Sicily became synonymous with fertility and prosperity.

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The trinacria today is the symbol that represents the island, in fact it is represented in the official Sicilian coat of arms.