When I looked at some airline ads, I kept having the feeling that I had seen these kind of images before, but couldn’t figure out where. Then I made the connection, assisted by a little mythology:

Pomona, Roman goddess of Abundance, as portrayed by William Morris about 1899

TWA ad, late 1950’s

Two woman, both offering food, surrounded by succulent-looking food – the stewardess and the goddess both promise abundance. One major difference: Pomona is usually portrayed as pregnant, and stewardesses in that era immediately lost their jobs at the first sign of incipient motherhood…