“And a great proof that she brought forth the common ancestors of us and of the departed is the she provided the means of support for her offspring.  For as a woman proves her motherhood by giving milk to her young ones. . . so did this out land prove that she was the mother of men, for in those days she alone and first of all brought forth wheat and barley for human food. . . And these are truer proofs of motherhood in a country than in a woman, for the woman in her conception and generation is but the imitation of the earth and not the earth of the woman.”

—   Menexenus, 336c.