Scientist gets to the bottom of love
The 'heart' symbol used to represent love is actually based on the shape of female buttocks, according to a scientist.
Pscychologist Galdino Pranzarone, who studied the origins of Valentine's Day, says the symbol is inspired by a woman's bottom as seen from the rear.
Prof Pranzarone, of Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia, told Discovery News that he analyzed "essential literary and speculative evidence from mythology and secondary sources."
"The twin lobes of the stylized version correspond roughly to the paired auricles and ventricles of the anatomical heart," he said.
But he added that the organ "is never bright red in color" and its "shape does not have the invagination at the top nor the sharp point at the base."
Pranzarone indicated that the ancient Greeks and Romans could have originated the link between human female anatomy and the heart shape.
The Greeks, he said, associated beauty with the curves of the human female behind.
"The Greek goddess of beauty, Aphrodite, was beautiful all over, but was unique in that her buttocks were especially beautiful," he said.
"Her shapely rounded hemispheres were so appreciated by the Greeks that they built a special temple Aphrodite Kallipygos, which literally meant, Goddess with the Beautiful Buttocks.
"This was probably the only religious building in the world that was dedicated to buttock worship."
