You see them everywhere in coastal areas, those showy fan-shaped shells, with a many-colored fluted exterior.
They're so eye-catching in a glass bowl, their shape so common in jewelry.
It's no surprise that since ancient times people prized scallops as food and have kept their shells for decoration, keepsakes, and even as a tool.
In Christian tradition, the scallop's shell has been associated with St. James the Great, one of the 12 disciples of Jesus. Exactly why this is true is the subject of multiple legends with one thing in common: A person or a horse ended up covered in scalloped shells.
One legend says St. James rescued a knight who was covered in scallops. Another has it that as St. James' dead body was lost at sea and later found, but it was covered in scallop shells. In a third legend, the horse of a knight fell into the water and emerged covered with shells or maybe it was a bride and her horse. Either way.
Since St. James was thought to have evangelized Spain, pilgrimages were popular, running from all over Europe to Galicia in northern Spain. In fact, you can still take such a pilgrimage, but few are undertaken solely on foot. In any case, the reward for completing the pilgrimage was and is a shell badge.
Along the way, scallop shells were used as a portion measure or as a tool for eating and drinking.
Not just Christian tradition holds a love for the hinged scallop shell. Paintings of Venus, the Roman goddess of fertility and love, frequently depict her emerging from a scallop. Romans may have carried the scallop shell as a symbol or hope of fertility. The Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, is similarly pictured with a scallop shell.
Celtic thought viewed the scallop shell as the setting sun and it can still be seen carved into stone Celtic crosses.
The shell was also sometimes used by the Egyptians as a symbol of the body crossing the river Styx.