Editing Fleur-de-lis (section)

==Origin==
[[File:Clovis recevant la fleur de lys - XVe siècle.jpg|thumb|upright=1.23|15th-century manuscript depicting an [[angel]] sending the ''fleurs-de-lis'' to [[Clovis I|Clovis]]. From the [[Bedford Hours]] in the [[British Library]], London.]]

According to [[Pierre Augustin Boissier de Sauvages|Pierre-Augustin Boissier de Sauvages]], an 18th-century French [[naturalist]] and [[lexicography|lexicographer]]:<ref name= "Sauvages1756">{{cite book| author= Pierre Augustin Boissier de Sauvages |title=Languedocien Dictionnaire François|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B8RDAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA154| access-date=27 July 2013|year=1756|page=154}}</ref>

[[File:Fleur.iris.2.png|upright=1.23|thumb|''[[Iris (plant)|Iris]]'' compared with ''fleur-de-lis'' [[ornament (architecture)|ornament]]<ref name= "architecture_dictionnaire_flore">{{cite web|url= http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionnaire_raisonn%C3%A9_de_l%E2%80%99architecture_fran%C3%A7aise_du_XIe_au_XVIe_si%C3%A8cle_-_Tome_5,_Flore |title=Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle – Tome 5, Flore – Wikisource |language=fr |publisher=Fr.wikisource.org |access-date=3 February 2012}}</ref>]]
<blockquote>The old fleurs-de-lis, especially the ones found in our first kings' sceptres, have a lot less in common with ordinary lilies than the flowers called ''flambas'' [in [[Occitan language|Occitan]]], or irises, from which the name of our own fleur-de-lis may derive. What gives some colour of truth to this hypothesis that we already put forth, is the fact that the French or Franks, before entering Gaul itself, lived for a long time around the river named [[Lys (river)|Lys]] in the Flanders. Nowadays, this river is still bordered with an exceptional number of irises —as many plants grow for centuries in the same places—: these irises have yellow flowers, which is not a typical feature of lilies but fleurs-de-lis. It was thus understandable that our kings, having to choose a symbolic image for what later became a coat of arms, set their minds on the iris, a flower that was common around their homes, and is also as beautiful as it was remarkable. They called it, in short, the fleur-de-lis, instead of the flower of the river of ''lis''. This flower, or iris, looks like our fleur-de-lis not just because of its yellow colour but also because of its shape: of the six petals, or leaves, that it has, three of them are alternatively straight and meet at their tops. The other three on the opposite, bend down so that the middle one seems to make one with the stalk and only the two ones facing out from left and right can clearly be seen, which is again similar with our fleurs-de-lis, that is to say exclusively the one from the river Luts whose white petals bend down too when the flower blooms.</blockquote>
[[File:Sumpf-Schwertlilie an der Isar.jpg|upright=1.3|thumb|Yellow ''[[Iris pseudacorus]]'' flowers on a blue field of water]]

The heraldist François Velde is known to have expressed the same opinion:<ref name="François Velde">{{cite web
 | last = Velde
 | first = François
 | title = The Fleur-de-lis
 | url = http://www.heraldica.org/topics/fdl.htm
 | access-date = 2013-09-13}}</ref>
 
<blockquote>However, a hypothesis ventured in the 17th c. sounds very plausible to me. One species of wild iris, the ''Iris pseudacorus'', yellow flag in English, is yellow and grows in marshes (cf. the azure field, for water). Its name in German is Lieschblume (also gelbe Schwertlilie), but Liesch was also spelled Lies and Leys in the Middle Ages. It is easy to imagine that, in Northern France, the Lieschblume would have been called 'fleur-de-lis'. This would explain the name and the formal origin of the design, as a stylized yellow flag. There is a fanciful legend about Clovis which links the yellow flag explicitly with the French coat of arms.<ref name="François Velde"/></blockquote>

===Alternative derivations===
Another (debated) hypothesis is that the symbol derives from the ''[[angon]]'' or ''sting'',<ref name="books.google.com">Thomas Dudley Fosbroke, ''A Treatise on the Arts, Manufactures, Manners, and Institutions of the Greek and Romans'' Volume 2 (1835)[https://books.google.com/books?id=5llkAAAAMAAJ&dq=frankish+angon+and+fleur+de+lis&pg=PA298] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227070100/https://books.google.com/books?id=5llkAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA298&lpg=PA298&dq=frankish+angon+and+fleur+de+lis&source=bl&ots=6I1v_IjH23&sig=ACfU3U0O5L0VpDnI3qPnDQkdBpcY-e_-nw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjAgaSVqKDqAhXFHM0KHV4BBL0Q6AEwF3oECAQQAQ#v=onepage&q=frankish%20angon%20and%20fleur%20de%20lis&f=false|date=27 December 2022}}</ref> a typical Frankish throwing spear.<ref name="books.google.com"/>

===Ancient usages===
It has consistently been used as a royal emblem, though different cultures have interpreted its meaning in varying ways. [[Roman Gallia (Gaul)|Gaulish]] coins show the first Western designs which look similar to modern ''fleurs-de-lis''.<ref name="Michel Pastoureau p.99">Michel Pastoureau, ''Heraldry: its origins and meaning'' p. 99</ref> In the [[Eastern world|East]] it was found on the gold helmet of a [[Scythians|Scythian]] king uncovered at the Ak-Burun [[kurgan]] and conserved in [[Saint Petersburg]]'s [[Hermitage Museum]].<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.anaharsis.ru/histori/Skif/R19.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090328035055/http://www.anaharsis.ru/histori/Skif/R19.htm | url-status=dead |title= Золотой шлем скифского царя. Ак-Бурун, VI в. до н. э. – Сервис регистрации доменов и хостинга *.RU-TLD.RU |archive-date=28 March 2009|website=www.anaharsis.ru}}</ref>

See also the very similar lily symbol on [[Yehud coinage|coins from the Achemenid and Ptolemaic province of Yehud]] (c. 350-200 BCE) and [[Hasmonean dynasty#Numismatics|Hasmonean-ruled Judah]] (2nd and 1st century BCE).

Among the [[pre-Columbian]] [[Maya peoples|Maya]] of [[Central America]], the water lily represented the watery surface of the [[Xibalba|underworld]] and the Earth's regenerative power, being depicted as a fleur-de-lis in Maya art.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.artic.edu/artworks/126858/water-lily-vessel | title=Water-Lily Vessel }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/exploring-the-early-americas/interactives/reading-pre-columbian-artifacts/items/item-4.html | title=Fleur-de-lys Vase with Primary Standard Sequence Glyph Band - Reading Pre-Columbian Artifacts - Exploring the Early Americas &#124; Exhibitions - Library of Congress | website=[[Library of Congress]] }}</ref> The fleur-de-lis also appears alongside some depictions of the rain god [[Chaac]], the Maya counterpart of the [[Aztec]] [[Tlaloc]] or [[Zapotec peoples|Zapotec]] [[Cocijo]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.bukowskis.com/sv/auctions/583/1512-a-mayan-polychrome-tripod-ceremonial-chocolate-bowl-late-classic-ca-550-950-a-d | title=A MAYAN POLYCHROME TRIPOD CEREMONIAL CHOCOLATE BOWL, late Classic, ca 550-950 A.D. }}</ref>