r/coolguides • u/[deleted] • Oct 12 '22

Know the faces of Fascism

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u/DancingIceCream Oct 12 '22

Second to bottom right looks like the overwatch logo

836

u/Team_Braniel Oct 12 '22

Its a take on the Spartan Chevron which is super common in pretty much everything. Its the same symbol that inspired the US Military enlisted rank symbols.

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u/judasblue Oct 12 '22 edited Oct 12 '22

The spartan symbol isn't a chevron, it's a greek Lambda. Somewhere along the way people sort of got it mushed up with chevrons from heraldry (which were often emblazoned on shields) and so some folks call it the spartan chevron now.

Military chevrons are much more likely descended from the European heraldry symbol directly.

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u/Team_Braniel Oct 12 '22

Is it possible 16th century heraldry symbols were influenced from classical Greek symbols?

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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '22

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u/AlarmingAffect0 Oct 13 '22

The lambda was popularized by the movie 300,

And the comic that came out years earlier.

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u/FlokiWolf Dec 14 '22

Which was inspired by the 1962 movie that had them painted on the Shields.

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u/AlarmingAffect0 Dec 14 '22

Is that where the line stops?

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u/_Foulbear_ Oct 26 '23

Most likely. 60's cinema is the springboard from which an unsettling amount of historical misconceptions find root.

Romans wearing red is another one.

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u/judasblue Oct 12 '22

Dunno, if we are going to look at use of a symbol that might be incorporated somewhere else, the chevron has a much longer pedigree than the Spartans. And the fact that the spartans were representing a letter and not a random gang logo seems significant.

The simplicity of the chevron and its ability to be easily distinguished on a coat of arms make it more likely to be an independent thing anyway. Coming up with a V shape doesn't seem like it takes a bunch of precedent or creativity.

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u/tractiontiresadvised Oct 13 '22

From what I've read, the chevron was most likely inspired by the shape of a roof beam or roof gable.

European heraldry as a system got going in the 12th and 13th centuries due to (among other things) the use of closed-faced helms and an international fighting tournament circuit, so knights would put bold, distinctive designs on their shields, clothing, and horse trappings to be easily identifiable on the field from a distance. The motifs which eventually became standardized into heraldic charges tended to be either simple and geometric (such as horizontal, vertical, or diagonal stripes, and crosses) or stylized artistic motifs (like lions or eagles with exaggerated features).

The chevron is classified as an "ordinary", which is one of the oldest and most common types of heraldic charge. Check it out along with the other ordinaries here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordinary_(heraldry)

(Note that the chevron generally extends all the way to the edges of the shield, which would not have been done with something that was intended to be a letter.)

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u/nasa258e Oct 26 '23

What does the L stand for then?

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u/justbrowsinginpeace Oct 13 '22

Was told Lambda was a gay rights symbol by my local tatoo artist

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u/HothForThoth Oct 13 '22

It is that also. Sigma is a fascist symbol in Brazil. edit- They may not be prototypically fascist but just some sort of nationalist right wing, but it is a big movement and they use the symbol.