A (copper/bronze)handmirror, symbol of the Greek goddessAphrodite (and her Roman equivalentVenus). The cross was added in the 16th century to Christianize the symbol of a pagan god.
1961 August 17,New Scientist, volume11, number248 (in English), Reed Business Information,→ISSN,page413:
In hisMantissa Plantarum (1767) andMantissa Plantarum altera (1771), [Linnaeus] regularly used ♂,♀ and ☿ for male, female and hermaphrodite flowers respectively.
1990, Charles S. Churcher, “Cranial Appendages of Giraffoidea”, George A. Bubenik, Anthony B. Bubenik,Horns, Pronghorns, and Antlers: Evolution, Morphology, Physiology, and Social Significance, New York: Springer-Verlag,→ISBN, chapter 1.5,page 183:
Figure 2. Ossicones, secondary ossification, and sinuses ofGiraffa:A Lateral aspect of skull showing courses of veins, areas of dense ossification (heavily stippled) and lesser secondary ossification (lightly stippled), and outlines of skull roofs of male (♂) and female (♀) adults. (After Spinage 1968b.)
2015 July 6, Andy Burns, “Re: C4 last leg”, inuk.tech.broadcast[1] (Usenet; in English):
I was quite surprised that a few of my friends found the male ♂ (mars) and female♀ (venus) symbols on toilets in pubs/bars confusing ...
1701, Johann Christoph Sommerhoff,Lexicon pharmaceutico-chymicum latino-germanicum & germanico-latinum [Pharmaceutico-Chemical Lexicon, Latin–German and German–Latin], page399:
Arte ſivè Chymice parata: ut Vitriolum ♃vis, ☽næ, ♂tis, ☉lis,♀ris
Those prepared by art or chemically: as vitriol of Jupiter, of the Moon, of Mars, of the Sun,of Venus
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