Because is a separable isogeny,
The degree-zero divisor
corresponds under to the sum of all elements of the finite abelian group . Pairing every with shows that this sum is the sum of the elements in . It vanishes when that intersection has one element and also when it has four elements, since the sum of the four elements of is zero. The principal divisor criterion on an elliptic curve therefore gives a rational function with .
The divisor is invariant under , so has zero divisor and is constant. Applying twice shows that this constant has square one; hence .
For a short Weierstrass equation of an elliptic curve
the multiplication-by-two isogeny has
Thus one may take , and . For multiplication by three, the third division polynomial of an elliptic curve
vanishes simply at the eight nonzero points of and has a pole of order eight at . Hence has divisor and satisfies . Both signs occur.