Where did the Trident come from?

Scholars offer yet another hypothesis on the origins of Ukraine’s National Coat of Arms

By Olena Yakhno,

The Day

The Historical Museum recently launched the All-Ukrainian exhi­bit “History of the National Coat of Arms of Ukraine,” com­me­mo­rating the 20th anniversary of the independence of our nation.

The exhibit is broad in its substance and can thus be shown anywhere - at a school and at the Supreme Council’s premises [Verkhovna Rada], at a minimum cost, as security and transportation costs are very low this way. “Original exhibits are expensive, and so they require proper storage and security,” the Ukrainian People’s Republic Museum director Oleksandr Kucher explained. “But people need to know at least some basic things. This exhibit may be brought to any village.” It presents about 150 images of unique antiquities from various Ukrainian museums. Originals of some of them are available in various rooms of the Historical Museum itself.

The organizers of the exhibition, the scholars Oleksandr Bielov and Heor­hii Sha­povalov have proposed their own theory on the origin of the Trident. In their opinion, our national symbol dates back to ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean and is strongly associated with deifying the Sun as the creator of life (symbolized by the cross) and the anchor as a life-saving device (symbolized by the trident).

One of the most interesting and vivid pieces is devoted to Pope Clement I [made Saint], who was drowned in the Black Sea with an anchor tied to his neck. According to a legend, there were Christians present at the Pope’s execution. They prayed and begged to give them a chance to bury Clement according to Christian rites, and a miracle happened: the sea receded from the shore and they found the body of Clement on a temple-like rock. The anchor lay near the martyr’s body. The exhibit illustrates how the Saint’s symbol (anchored cross) came to be stamped on coins of Kyivan Rus’.

“We attempted to summarize the works of our predecessors and offer our own hypothesis. It is not an eternal truth, only an opinion. However, we see it as a well-founded one. As for the trident’s origins as a version of the anchor - it is recorded in The Bible. Read Paul the Apostle, he says it all: ‘We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secu­re’. (Hebrews 6:19),” Bielov told The Day.

However, some scholars disagree. Why, they ask, would an agricultural people have the anchor as their symbol? This is somewhat unreasonable. It would be something related to agriculture instead.

Currently, there are over forty theories on the origins and interpretation of the meaning of the trident. Some see the trident as the image of the upper part of the Byzantine royal sceptre, or the Scythian royal sceptre, or crown - something that symbolizes state authority. Other researchers believe that the trident resembles a bird’s shape, being an embo­diment of the Viking raven, Viking falcon or dove of the Holy Ghost. Many experts suggest that this symbol is an emblem associated with a specific element of everyday human life — the Viking helmet, axe, flag, fishing device, bow and arrow, grain ear, etc. There is yet another opinion, which perceives the trident as the Cyrillic letter which used to have a numerical meaning, too, corresponding to the figure “3”.

Philosophers offer some more interesting opinions on the origins and meaning of the trident. They interpret this sign not as an exact or stylized image of some material object, but as a symbolic depiction of some idea, concept or phenomenon. Some believe that St. Volodymyr’s Trident is a symbol of the idea of state authority. Others see it as a symbol of power over the three worlds - heaven, earth and hell, or a symbolic key to understanding the alphabets of the Earth. Some suggest that the trident is a monogram of Cyrillic letters that begin the word (search), meaning that the trident is a reminder of nature’s laws created to increase human activity and instil responsibility for its development.

Most hypotheses are undermined by the trident’s antiquity as a symbol. Long before the emergence of the Christian Church, it was used by Trypillian culture communities and other peoples, with 59 percent of the national coats of arms in modern Europe containing some variety of trinitarian symbols (triangular crowns, three-merloned towers, triple signs, trefoils, etc.).

On February 19, 1992, for the first time in the modern history of our country, “the golden trident on the blue shield” was adopted as the National Coat of Arms of Ukraine. This is our symbol, and we are proud of it, whatever its origin.