I'm sure we've all heard that age old riddle: "What came first, the chicken or the egg?" It may sound like a silly little riddle, but there's more to it than people are aware of, and what's more important, is that the riddle does have an answer. This riddle deals with alchemical symbolism. In alchemy, the soul has always been represented by the egg. In this sense, the body would be represented by the chicken. It's a common idea that the soul came before the body, so you can easily assume that the egg came before the chicken. It's just that simple.