Bird/woman with arm supporting her breast; c� 5900 -5700 BCE� Sesklo culture, (Megali Vrisi, Timavor), Thessaly� Drawing by the author after a photo from the Volos Museum�

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... recalling the Old Testament story of the serpent and apple, symbolizing male and female respectively, the image of the medical caduceus comes to mind� The caduceus, found in early Middle Eastern and Greek iconography, depicts one or two snakes encircling a rod or tree and reaching toward a sphere, arguably the breast or apple of biblical parlance� The wings in this interpretation represent a bird in flight--the entire scene signifying sex, pleasure, and good health� Of related interest is the great serpent mound of southern Ohio, a Native American earthwork� The mysterious 1,000 foot long, three foot high sinuous serpent has in its open mouth, an oval breast-like structure which at one time was part of a scorched rock altar� This effigy mound is thought by some experts to represent a mythical water serpent which can also be seen in other North American depictions from the time� It is reminiscent of the Aranda myth of the water serpent who pursued Breast woman, and the Hopi pageant of the snake-men who suckled the breast of Hahai'i� In other symbolism concerning the breast, there exist paleolithic figurines from Europe, that are part bird and part woman and which exhibit prominent breasts� See Figure 4� Birds have long been associated with sex, fertility, and the family� The stork is known to children throughout northern Europe as the bringer of babies, and the goose is the emblem of family life and devotion to its mate, and is also associated with communication and story telling, as in "Mother Goose" tales� The bird-winged Greek sphinx, with a woman's head and rounded female breasts, is part beast as well -a lion sitting on its haunches� The sphinx is thought to symbolize the mystery of humanity� ...