I'm writing a story and am thinking of making a symbol of a sickle with a grapevine wrapped around it. But it occurs to me that this might have been someone else's symbol in classical mythology. Dionysus perhaps? I just want to check to avoid giving a character a symbol that it would be inappropriate for him to have (these characters definitely wouldn't be Bacchanals). So, did anyone in antiquity carry a sickle with a grapevine around it? Thanks!
I don't think you should worry about an obscure symbol that might have been used thousands of years ago by someone incredibly famous. The Nazis took the Celtic Cross, the Eagle has been used by just about everyone in every age so unless yours is the swastika don't sweat.
Even the swastika was ripped off from Bhuddism(?) or Hinduism, I forget which. It still stands as a religious symbol to this day as far as I know in some countries.
google sickle and vine Do text searches and image searches. I don't think you'll find anything too troublesome. The top searches were a quote from Revelations, but even there, it wasn't really significant of the pairing of the two items. Your search engine is your friend.
It's a pity it was taken by the Nazis - its origins are quite interesting but its connotations now have meant it's been banned almost everywhere http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
