Why Doesn't ❤️ Look Like a Heart?

2024-02-13 · explainer · John · 5:11 · watch on YouTube

Topic: History & curiosities · mode: Explainer · tags: timely hook

Ahead of Valentine's Day, John asks why the heart shape does not look like a heart and ranks four theories (simplification like the smiley face, Libyan silphium seeds, a plant or decorative origin, breasts or buttocks); he concludes the shape symbolizes not the organ but how loving and being loved feels, a shared shorthand like language and emojis.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Valentine's Day hook: why heart shapes are not heart-shaped; four theories ranked by likelihood

★★ With Valentine's Day near, John asks why heart shapes don't look like hearts; he read a book and many websites and ranks four prevailing theories by likelihood. — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Theory 1, the 'smiley face theorem': simplification of animal hearts drawn by anatomists

★★★ First theory: the heart shape is a simplified image, red and blobby like a heart, just as the smiley face doesn't look like a face yet represents one. — 00:00:29
★★ John says people mostly saw animal hearts (cow, sheep, goat), and anatomists in Afro-Eurasia have drawn roughly Valentine-shaped hearts for almost a thousand years. — 00:00:58
★★ John judges the simplification theory the most likely but the least interesting, a common problem with solving historical mysteries. — 00:01:20

00:01:27 — The heart's old link to love (Sappho) versus the newer heart shape for love

★★ John says the heart has long been tied to love, as in Sappho's heart quaking with love some 2,700 years ago, since it flutters in love and longing. — 00:01:27
★★ John says linking the heart shape itself to love is much newer: evidence goes back maybe 700 years, such as an illustration of a woman giving her heart to a lover. (hedged) — 00:01:45

00:01:56 — Theory 2, the 'Libyan conjecture': heart-shaped silphium seeds, contraception and Cyrene's coins

★★★ Second theory: ancient Afro-Eurasians prized the heart-shaped seeds of silphium, a giant fennel from Libya; Pliny the Elder called them one of nature's most precious gifts. — 00:01:56
★ John adds that Pliny noted silphium, unlike most medicinal herbs, didn't make you fart. (playful) — 00:02:15
★★ John says silphium was associated with sex and romantic love because it was used as contraception, and the people of Libya, then known as Cyrene, valued it so much that they minted it on their coins. — 00:02:26
★★ John says the silphium image may have been linked to romantic love and over thousands of years conflated with the heart, also linked to romantic love. (hedged) — 00:02:40
★★ Third theory: the shape comes from a plant or decorative origin (heart-shaped fig leaves, ivy associated with fidelity) and people tied it to love and the heart, not the reverse. (hedged) — 00:02:50

00:02:55 — Theory 3: plant or decorative origins (fig leaves, ivy, Indus Valley, ancient Japan)

★★ John says the Indus Valley Civilization used heart shapes of unknown meaning, and ancient Japan used them too, apparently unrelated to romantic love. (hedged) — 00:03:05

00:03:24 — Theory 4: the shape resembles breasts or buttocks and was first tied to lust

★★ Fourth theory: the shape resembles breasts or buttocks; some argue it was first associated with lust and longing and only later with the heart as the seat of emotion. (playful) — 00:03:24

00:03:53 — The heart is not the seat of emotion; the shape is a metaphor for loving and being loved, a shared shorthand like language and emojis

★★★ John says the heart is not the seat of emotion: a fluttering heart over a crush is felt, but the emotion sits in the brain, insofar as it has a seat. — 00:03:53
★★ John says a sinking, breaking or full heart is a simile or metaphor for how it feels, not what the heart actually does. — 00:04:05
★★★ John concludes the heart shape symbolizes not the heart but how we feel when loving and being loved; love could have been imagined elsewhere, with a different shape. — 00:04:23

“It's a symbol for how we feel in our deepest depths when we experience loving and being loved”
★★★ John is glad of the shape, not because it is perfect or anatomical, but because it is a shared shorthand that helps us understand each other, which is what language and emojis are for. — 00:04:52

In the description and comments

★★ The description credits Martin Kemp's book Christ to Coke for the heart-shape section, the smiley face metaphor and much background, and calls Wikipedia's article good if limited. — video description · Wikipedia

Mentioned

Central: heart · heart symbol · love

Also: People: Pliny the Elder · Sappho

Concepts: birth control · broken heart · emoji · emoticon · metaphor · romantic love · silphium

Places: Afro-Eurasia · Cyrene · Indus Valley Civilisation · Japan · Libya

Events: Valentine's Day

Only in the description or credits: Christ to Coke: How Image Becomes Icon · Martin Kemp · Wikipedia

Also centred on love: I Love My Brother · Happy Esther Day! · Lives Made of Love - Esther Day 2016 · Two Love Stories · Uncertain and Afraid · you're bundled up now? wait till you get older.

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