Human beings, consciously or unconsciously, have the peculiar obsession of establishing symbologies to represent countless situations. And with the rise of social networks and electronic communication, this pattern became even more rooted in symbols of absolutely everything, because with the abundance of emojis, we even saved the words.
Love is represented by a heart, an emoticon winking the eye means mischief or complicity ... in short, the messages that leave this type of iconographic language are clear-sometimes-and its origins are not an enigma to anyone. However, there are conventional figures that, although we see them everywhere and we know what they mean, we do not know why they are illustrated in such a way, as it is the case of the feminine and masculine symbols whose fascinating origin we tell you next.
The origin of the feminine and masculine symbols
The universe is the muse and the genesis of science , is its gravitational center and the celestial temple that responds on a large scale to the unknowns that line this world and the beings that inhabit it. Once man discovered that activities in space have an intrinsic influence on what happens with a specific individual or group (astrology) and on Earth, this branch of knowledge has since been inspired in the cosmos to develop its systematic expression .
In biology, starting with the astronomy , alchemy and Greek mythology , graphic representations were established to identify the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdom by gender and species, from which the feminine and masculine symbols become.
The pattern we know today, those symbols that represent the masculine and the feminine, was developed in the seventeenth century by Carlos Linneo , scientist, botanist, zoologist and naturalist, copying the signs of a manuscript of alchemists Europeans of medieval times called Pharmacopoea Leovardensi , in which they associated metals with stars and specific signs as a kind of abbreviation: for Mars, iron; for Venus, copper, and for Mercury, mercury.
The female Symbol
The female symbol is usually illustrated with a circle and a cross, which -according to nineteenth-century hypotheses- is actually a hand mirror and refers to the planet Venus Yet the Roman goddess with the same name. In addition to, as we mentioned before, represent copper.
It must be said, of course, that Venus has not always been represented as illustrated in this symbol. In the second century it was represented with a necklace.
Other hypotheses, such as the famous humanist Calude Saumaise, suggest that it is not a hand mirror, but rather a reinterpretation of Greek letters.
The Masculine Symbol
The curious masculine symbol began to be identified with a shield and a spear in the sixteenth century and represents the God Mars, to the iron in the alchemy and to the planet Mars.
The fact of drawing Mars as a shield and a spear is considered to have derived from always representing a crossed lance on a shield. Since Mars was represented as a spear, possibly it was completed with the accessory that was usually added to it.
On the other hand, and showing another hypothesis, this would be the evolution to which Claude Saumaise pointed as the origin of these symbols, the result of the transcription and rapid abbreviation of Greek.
The masculine and feminine symbols, denoted as god Mars and goddess Venus, are the reflection of the wonderful nexus that exists between astrology and mythology , well in addition to this biological system, the celestial bodies , Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury and Saturn also They received their names in honor of the Roman gods (which, in turn, came from the Greek deities). The same metaphorical associations that were implemented in alchemy and shaped these symbols that distinguish men from women.
With all this, the phrase "men are from Mars and women from Venus" loses a bit the sexist tinge that often receives to gain a more interesting theoretical sense.
Did you know these symbolic associations of the feminine symbol and the masculine symbol? What has it seemed to you that the legacy of alchemy still remains in symbols so common today?
We invite you to read The enigma of the origin of the @ , that like the feminine and masculine symbols, you see it often but, do you know where it comes from? Discover it!