question: how did the shape of the heart come to be if it looks so different than an actual heart?
comment: Nobody is quite sure, but there is speculation that the symbol comes from the shape of the seed pod of the now extinct silphium plant. This was used in ancient times as, among other things, an aphrodisiac which explains its present usage.
passages: Various hypotheses attempted to connect the "heart shape" as it evolved in the Late Middle Ages with instances of the geometric shape in antiquity. Such theories are modern, proposed from the 1960s onward, and they remain speculative, as no continuity between the supposed ancient predecessors and the late medieval tradition can be shown. Specific suggestions include: the shape of the seed of the silphium plant, used in ancient times as an herbal contraceptive, and stylized depictions of features of the human female body, such as the female's breasts, buttocks, pubic mound, or spread vulva.
  
  Section::::History.:Renaissance and early modern.
   There has been some speculation about the connection between silphium and the traditional heart shape (♥). Silver coins from Cyrene of the 6–5th century BCE bear a similar design, sometimes accompanied by a silphium plant and is understood to represent its seed or fruit. Some plants in the family Apiaceae, such as "Heracleum sphondylium", have heart-shaped indehiscent mericarps (a type of fruit).
   Heart shapes can be seen on the Bible Jesus holds in the Empress Zoë mosaic in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, but a reference to the organ was probably not intended. It probably dates from 1239.
  
  Likewise, heart shapes can be seen on various stucco reliefs and wall panels excavated from the ruins of Ctesiphon, the Persian capital (circa 90 BC – 637 AD).
   Section::::History.:Earliest use.
   Section::::Heraldry.
   The aorta remains visible, as a protrusion at the top centered between the two "chambers" indicated in the symbol, in some depictions of the Sacred Heart well into the 18th century, and is partly still shown today (although mostly obscured by elements such as a crown, flames, rays, or a cross) but the "hearts" suit did not have this element since the 15th century.
   Section::::Origin and recording.
   Heart-shaped peepal leaves were used in artistic depictions of the Indus Valley Civilisation: a heart pendant originated from there has been discovered and is now exhibited in Delhi national museum. In the 6th-5th century BC, the heart shape was used to represent the heart-shaped fruit of the plant Silphium, a plant possibly used as a contraceptive. Many species in the parsley family have estrogenic properties, and some, such as wild carrot, were used to induce abortion. Silver coins from Cyrene of the 6–5th BC bear a similar design, sometimes accompanied by a silphium plant and is understood to represent its seed or fruit.
   Historically, biological illustrations have been in use since the beginning of man's exploration and attempts to understand the world around him. The paleolithic cave paintings were so detailed that we can even recognize species and breeds of many of the depicted animals today. For example, in the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave (circa 30,000 BC), at least 13 different species have been identified. In one prehistoric cave (circa 15,000 BC), there is a drawing of a mammoth with a darkened area where the heart should be. If this is indeed the intention of the illustration, it would be the world's first anatomical illustration.
   It has been known since Classical times in harts and oxes and was thought to have medicinal properties and mystical properties. It is occasionally observed in goats, but also in other animals such as otters.
  
  Against the opinion of his time, Galen wrote that the os cordis was also found in elephants. The claim endured up to the nineteenth century and was still treated as fact in Gray's "Anatomy", although it is not the case.
  
  Section::::Function.
   Stones were covered in other general medical books, ranging from the 1st century Greek "De Materia Medica" by Dioscurides to a wide range of Early Modern medical self-help books.
  
  Section::::Christian symbolism.
   The triliteral Egyptian hieroglyph F35 ('nfr') has sometimes been explained as a representation of a lute; however, Egyptologists today no longer consider this hypothesis likely. Rather than a lute, the hieroglyph is actually a representation of the heart and trachea. It originally may have been the esophagus and heart. The striations of the windpipe only appear in the hieroglyph following the Old Kingdom of Egypt. The lower part of the sign has always clearly been the heart, for the markings clearly follow the form of a sheep's heart.
  
  Section::::Use.
   Descriptions of the exact placement of the heart within the body, the circulation of blood are in no doubt accurate as Egyptians practiced embalming their dead by removal of organs and placement of them in jars.
  
  Section::::Medical Body in Ancient Greece.
   Section::::Background.
   These ideas went unchallenged for almost a thousand years.
  
  Section::::History.:Pre-modern.
  
  The earliest descriptions of the coronary and pulmonary circulation systems can be found in the "Commentary on Anatomy in Avicenna's Canon", published in 1242 by Ibn al-Nafis. In his manuscript, al-Nafis wrote that blood passes through the pulmonary circulation instead of moving from the right to the left ventricle as previously believed by Galen. His work was later translated into Latin by Andrea Alpago.
   BULLET::::- Looking below, the figure to the left has a symbol made of four lines that are connected to a perpendicular line (or bar) located on the right shoulder. Another female figurine found at a Precucuteni site near Târgu Frumos, in Iaşi County, Romania, has an identical symbol, including the placement of it on the figurine's right shoulder. Târgu Frumos is located a linear 88.5 km. (55 miles) from Ghindaru.
   There has been some conjecture regarding the link between the traditional heart symbol and images of the fruit of Silphium, a (probably) extinct plant known to classical antiquity and belonging to the genus Ferula, used as a condiment and medicine, (the medicinal properties including contraceptive and abortifacient activity, linking the plant to sexuality and love). Silver coins from the ancient Libya of the 6th - 5th BC bear images strongly reminiscent of the heart symbol, sometimes accompanied by images of the Silphium plant. The related Ferula species Asafoetida - which was actually used as an inferior substitute for Silphium - is regarded as an aphrodisiac in Tibet and India, suggesting yet a third amatory association relating to Silphium.
   It has been stated that many of the signs or symbols which accompany maze or geometric patterns from sites such as Newgrange in Ireland are identifiable or interpretable as human, the womb (lens symbol), the pubic area (lozenge symbol), fallopian horns (ram's horns), the female form (hour-glass symbol), breasts ("w" or omega symbol), etc. The vesica piscis shape as found on the lid of the Chalice Well at Glastonbury includes an almond- or lozenge-shaped central area that is seen as a possible representation of the female genitals. Meehan does not, however, clearly indicate his sources for these interpretations.
   The "scalloped" shape of the now-familiar heart symbol, with a dent in its base, arises in the early 14th century, at first only lightly dented, as in the miniatures in Francesco Barberino's "Documenti d'amore "(before 1320). A slightly later example with a more pronounced dent is found in a manuscript from the Cistercian monastery in Brussels (MS 4459–70, fol 192v. Royal Library of Belgium). The convention of showing a dent at the base of the heart thus spread at about the same time as the convention of showing the heart with its point downward. The modern indented red heart has been used on playing cards since the late 15th century.
   Saint Aid or Áed mac Bricc was Bishop of Killare in 6th-century. At Saint Aid's birth his head had hit a stone, leaving a petrosomatoglyph type hole in which collected rainwater that cured all ailments, identifying it also with the Irish tradition of Bullaun stones and possible links to cup and ring mark stones.
  
  Section::::Human petrosomatoglyphs.:The female form and reproductive structures.
   In ancient Egypt, people believed that the heart is the seat of the soul and the origin of the channels to all other parts of the body, including arteries, veins, nerves and tendons. The heart was also depicted to determine the fate of ancient Egyptians after they die. The god of mummification, Anubis would weigh the heart against a feather. If the heart was too heavy, it would be considered guilty and consumed by the Devourer, a mythological creature. If it was lighter than the feather, the spirit would be allowed to go to heaven. Therefore, the heart was kept in the mummy while other organs would be taken out.
   Kranok Sam Thua is the mother pattern of the all Kranok patterns as it the original design. Although different patterns exist, slight variations on design can be observed. Generally, the shape of the Kranok pattern originated from a lotus flower and derived from the appearance of the flame.
  
  Section::::Designs.
   Heraldic charges actually representing hearts became more common in the early modern period, with the Sacred Heart depicted in ecclesiastical heraldry, and hearts representing love appearing in bourgeois coats of arms. Hearts also later became popular elements in municipal coats of arms.
  
  Section::::Botanical symbolism.
   A woman who had used an eagle's feather for sex gave birth to a round, headless child with feathered shoulders. A council was held, and it was decided that this baby too should be abandoned. It was left in an alkali pit. But it lived, and grew to become , Monster Eagle. It made its home on "," a peak beyond La Plata Mountains.
   At computational anatomy's heart is the comparison of shape by recognizing in one shape the other. This connects it to D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's developments On Growth and Form which has led to scientific explanations of morphogenesis, the process by which patterns are formed in Biology. Albrecht Durer's Four Books on Human Proportion were arguably the earliest works on computational anatomy. The efforts of Noam Chomsky in his pioneering of Computational Linguistics inspired the original formulation of computational anatomy as a generative model of shape and form from exemplars acted upon via transformations.
  