Форум "Ах, папильон, папийон, papillon!"

OffTopic: Что-то как-то маловато навскидку в Википедии:

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Бабочки и человек

В древности бабочка была символом бессмертия души (Психея), и её выхождение из куколки приравнивалось к освобождению души от тела в момент смерти. В произведениях искусства Психея изображается по большей части с крыльями бабочки. Бог сна (Гипноз) также изображается с крыльями бабочки на голове, так как сон считается периодическим освобождением души от земных уз.

Забавненько:

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In culture

Art
Artistic depictions of butterflies have been used in many cultures including Egyptian hieroglyphs 3500 years ago. Today, butterflies are widely used in various objects of art, and have inspired the "butterfly fairy" as an art and fictional character.

Symbolism
According to the “Butterflies” chapter in Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, by Lafcadio Hearn, a butterfly is seen as the personification of a person's soul; whether they be living, dying, or already dead. One Japanese superstition says that if a butterfly enters your guestroom and perches behind the bamboo screen, the person whom you most love is coming to see you. However, large numbers of butterflies are viewed as bad omens. When Taira no Masakado was secretly preparing for his famous revolt, there appeared in Kyoto so vast a swarm of butterflies that the people were frightened — -thinking the apparition to be a portent of coming evil.

The Russian word for "butterfly", бабочка (bábochka), also means "bow tie". It is a diminutive of "baba" or "babka" (= "woman, grandmother, cake", whence also "babushka" = "grandmother".

The Ancient Greek word for "butterfly" is ψυχή (psȳchē), which primarily means "soul", "mind".

According to Mircea Eliade's Encyclopedia of Religion, some of the Nagas of Manipur trace their ancestry from a butterfly.

In Chinese culture two butterflies flying together are a symbol of love. Also a famous Chinese folk story called Butterfly Lovers. The Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi once had a dream of being a butterfly flying without care about humanity, however when he woke up and realised it was just a dream, he thought to himself "Was I before a man who dreamt about being a butterfly, or am I now a butterfly who dreams about being a man?"

In some old cultures, butterflies also symbolize rebirth into a new life after being inside a cocoon for a period of time.

Some people say that when a butterfly lands on you it means good luck.

However, in Devonshire, people would traditionally rush around to kill the first butterfly of the year that they see, or else face a year of bad luck.

The idiom "butterflies in the stomach" is used to describe a state of nervousness.