The Swastika
Definitions, Description & Origin
Professor Sayce, in his preface to "Troja," says: (3)
The same symbol [the Swastika], as is well known, occurs o the Archaic pottery of Cyrprus * * * as well as upon the prehistoric antiquities of Athens and Mykenae [same, "Ilios," p. 353], but it was entirely unknown to Babylonia, to Assyria, to Phoenicia, 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 probably; but whether it is so or not, the presence of the symbol in the land of the Aegean indicates a particular epoch and the influence of a pre-Phoenician culture.
Dr. Schleimann (4) 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:(5)
It is evident to me that the sign found at Hissarlik is identical with that found at Mycenae and Athens, as well as on the prehistoric pottery of Cyprus (Di Cesnola, Cyprus, pla. 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]
fig.
226 ("Ilios," fig. 125 this paper) seems to show that it was
a symbol of generation.Count Goblet d'Alviella,(6) citing Albert Dumont (7) and Perrot and Chipiez, (8) says:
The Swastika appears in Greece, as well as in Cyprus and Rhodes, first on the pottery, with geometric decorations, which from the second period in Greek ceramics. From that it passes to a later period, where the decoration is more artistic and the appearance of which coincides with the development of the Phoenician influences on the coasts of Greece.
Dr. Ohenfalsch- Richter, in a paper devoted to the consideration of the Swastika in Cyprus, (9) expresses the opinion that the emigrant or commercial Phoenicians traveling in far eastern countries brought the Swastika by the sea route of the Persian Gulf to Asia Minor and Cyprus, while, possibly, other people brought it by the overland route from central Asia, Asia Minor, and Hissarlik, and afterwards by migration to Cyprus, Carthage, and the north of Africa.
Professor Goodyear says: (10)
The true home of the Swastika is the Greek geometric style, as will be immediately obvious to every expert who examines the question through the study of that style. In seeking the home of a symbol, we should consider where it appears in the largest dimension and where it appears in the most formal and prominent way. The Greek geometric vases are the only monuments on which the Swastika systematically appears in panels exclusively assigned to it (pl. 60, fig. 13; and pl. 56, fig. 4). There are no other monuments on which the Swastika can be found in a dimension taking up one-half the height of the entire object (pl. 56, fig. 4). The ordinary size of the Swastika, in very primitive times, is under a third of an inch n diameter. They are found in Greek geometric pottery 2 or 3 inches in diameter, but they also appear in the informal scattering way (pl. 61, fig. 4) which characterizes the Swastika in other styles.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Swastika dates from the earliest diffusion of the Egyptian meander in the basin of the Mediterranean, and it is a profound remark of De Morgan (Mission Scientigique and Caucase) that the area of the Swastika appears to be coextensive with the area of bronze. In northern prehistoric Europe, where the Swastika has attracted considerable attention, it is distinctly connected with the bronze culture derived from the south. When found on prehistoric pottery of the north, the southern home of its beginnings is equally clear.
In seeking the home of a symbol, we should consider not only the nature of its appearance, but also where it is found in the largest amount, for this shows the center of vogue and power-- that is to say, the center of diffusion. The vogue of the Swastika at Troy is not as great as its vogue in Cyprian Greek pottery (pl. 60, fig. 15) and Rhodian pottery (pl. 60, fig. 2). * * * It is well known to Melian vases (pl. 60, fig. 8) and to archaic Greek vases (pl. 61, fig. 12), but its greatest prominence is on the pottery of the Greek geometric style (pl. 60 fig. 13; pl. 56, fig. 4; pl. 61, figs. 1 and 4; and figs. 173 and 174). * * *
Aside from the Greek geometric style, our earliest reference for the Swastika, and very possibly an earlier reference than the first, is its appearance on the "hut urns" of Italy. On such it appears rather as a fragment of the more complicated meander patterns, from which it is derived. My precise view is that the earliest and, consequently, imperfect, forms of the Swastika are on the hut urns of Italy, but that, as an independent and definitely shaped pattern, it first belongs to the Greek geometric style. I do not assert that the Swastika is very common on hut urns, which are often undecorated. * * * Our present intermediate link with India for the Swastika lies in the Caucasus and in the adjacent territory of Koban. This last ancient center of the arts in metal has lately attracted attention through the publication of Virehow (Das Gräborfeld von Koban). In the original Coban bronzes of the Prehistoric Museum of St. Germain there is abundant matte for study (p. 351).
Mr. R. P. Greg, in "Fret or Key Ornamentation in Mexico and Peru,"(11) says:
Both the Greek fret and the fylfot appear to have been unknown to the Semitic nations as an ornament or as a symbol.
ENDNOTES:
1. "La Migration des Symboles," p. 93. [Back]
2. Ibid., p. 107. [Back]
3. "Ilios.," p. xxi." [Back]
4. Ibid., p. 352. [Back]
5. Ibid., p. 353. [Back]
6. "La Migration Des Symboles," p. 43. [Back]
7. "Peintures céramiques de la Grèce propre." i, pl. xv, fig. 17. [Back]
8. "Histoire de l'art dans l'antiquité," iii, figs. 513, 515, 518. [Back]
9. Bull. Soc. d'Anthrop., Paris. December 6, 1888, pp. 669, 679, 680. [Back]
10. "Grammar of the Lotus," p. 348 et seq. [Back]
11. Archaeologia, xlvii, pt. 1, p. 159. [Back]
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