Three Hares

An ancient symbol appearing at several sacred sites from the Middle East and Far East and along the Silk Road all the way to Southwestern England. Here three hares chase each other in a circle with ears connected in a threefold rotational symmetry as in the Triskellion and triquetra.

Hares and rabbits are fertility symbols of antiquity. Since hares and rabbits give birth to large litters in the early spring, they became symbols of the rising fertility of the earth at the Vernal Equinox. Female hares can conceive a second litter of offspring while still pregnant with the first.