Insects in mythology
Insects have appeared in mythology around the world from ancient times. Among the insect groups featuring in myths are the
Insect myths may present the origins of a people, or of their skills such as finding honey. Other myths concern the nature of the gods or their actions, and how they may be appeased. A variety of myths tell of transformations, such as between the soul of a living or dead person and a butterfly in Japan. Finally, insects appear as symbols of human qualities such as swiftness, or as portents of forthcoming trouble; accordingly, they may appear as amulets to ward off evil.
Myths of origin
The Kalahari Desert's
In Egyptian mythology, bees grew from the tears of the sun god Ra when they landed on the desert sand. There Egyptian gods that associate with insects like Selket Khepri and Neith[2] The bowstring on Hindu love god Kamadeva's bow is made of honeybees.[3]
The
In
In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, the goddess Aphrodite retells the legend of how Eos, the goddess of the dawn, requested Zeus to let her lover Tithonus live forever as an immortal.[8] Zeus granted her request, but, because Eos forgot to ask him to also make Tithonus ageless, Tithonus never died, but he did grow old.[8] Eventually, he became so tiny and shriveled that he turned into the first cicada.[8]
Among the
Gods and mortals
In an ancient
The
In
In
In
In ancient Egyptian religion, the sun god Ra is seen to roll across the sky each day, transforming bodies and souls. Beetles of the family Scarabaeidae (dung beetle) roll dung into a ball as food and as a brood chamber in which to lay eggs; this way, the larvae hatch and are immediately surrounded by food. For these reasons the scarab was seen as a symbol of this heavenly cycle and of the idea of rebirth or regeneration. The Egyptian god Khepri, Ra as the rising sun, was often depicted as a scarab beetle or as a scarab beetle-headed man. The ancient Egyptians believed that Khepri renewed the sun every day before rolling it above the horizon, then carried it through the other world after sunset, only to renew it, again, the next day.[19]
The
Transformations
According to Lafcadio Hearn, a butterfly was seen in Japan as the personification of a person's soul; whether they be living, dying, or already dead. If a butterfly enters your guestroom and perches behind the bamboo screen, it is said in Japan that the person whom you most love is coming to see you. 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.[23]
Diderot's Encyclopédie similarly cites butterflies as a symbol for the soul. A Roman sculpture depicts a butterfly exiting the mouth of a dead man, representing the Roman belief that the soul leaves through the mouth.[24] Indeed, the ancient Greek word for "butterfly" is ψυχή (psȳchē), which primarily means "soul" or "mind".[25] According to Mircea Eliade, some of the Nagas of Manipur claim ancestry from a butterfly.[26] In some cultures, butterflies symbolise rebirth.[27] In the English county of Devon, people once hurried to kill the first butterfly of the year, to avoid a year of bad luck.[28] In the Philippines, a lingering black butterfly or moth in the house is taken to mean a death in the family.[29]
An
An Australian aboriginal tale tells how a man builds a shelter for his sick son; when he returns with food, his son has vanished, but up in a tree is a cocoon around a pupa.[9]
Symbols, amulets and omens
Insects have often been taken to represent qualities, for good or ill, and accordingly have been used as amulets to ward off evil, or as omens that predict forthcoming events. A blue-glazed faience dragonfly amulet was found by Flinders Petrie at Lahun, from the Late Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt.[31] During the Greek Archaic Era, the grasshopper was the symbol of the polis of Athens,[32] possibly because they were among the most common insects on the dry plains of Attica.[32] Native Athenians wore golden grasshopper brooches to symbolize that they were of pure, Athenian lineage and did not have any foreign ancestors.[32] In later times, this custom became seen as a mark of archaism.[32]
For some Native American tribes, dragonflies represent swiftness and activity; for the
In Europe, dragonflies have often been seen as sinister. Some English vernacular names, such as "horse-stinger",[38] "devil's darning needle", and "ear cutter", link them with evil or injury.[39]
See also
References
- ^ Chrigi-in-Africa. "The First Bushman / San". Gateway Africa. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
- ISBN 978-0-19-936138-0.
- ^ "Kama". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
His bow is of sugarcane, his bowstring a row of bees.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7475-2502-8.
- ^ "Kintu the Person vs Kintu the Legend". Retrieved 19 April 2014.
- ^ "Kintu – The First Human in Buganda". Retrieved 19 April 2014.
- ^ "Aristaeus". Retrieved 20 April 2014.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-674-03558-4.
- ^ a b "Use of Insects by Australian Aborigines". Cultural Entomology Digest (1). Insects.org. Archived from the original on 25 August 2012. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
- ^ ISBN 0-7141-1705-6.
- ISBN 978-1-4051-4457-5.
- ISBN 1-4051-1113-5.
- ^ Scheinberg, Susan 1979. "The Bee Maidens of the Homeric Hymn to Hermes". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 83(1979), pp. 1–28.
- ^ One was illustrated in a line drawing in Harrison 1922:443, fig 135
- ^ Cook, Arthur Bernard. "The bee in Greek mythology" 1895 Journal of the Hellenic Society 15 pages 1–24
- ISBN 0-19-513149-5.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4438-2466-8.
- ^ "The Devi Bhagavatam: The Tenth Book: Chapter 13". sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
- ISBN 965-278-083-9.
- ^ "Insek-kaleidoskoop: Die 'skynheilige' hottentotsgot". Mieliestronk.com (in Afrikaans). Retrieved 9 October 2015.
- ISBN 978-0-8018-6174-1.
- ^ "Mantid". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
- ISBN 0-486-21901-1.
- ^ "Butterfly". Encyclopedia of Diderot and D'Alembert. January 2011. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
- ^ Hutchins, M., Arthur V. Evans, Rosser W. Garrison and Neil Schlager (Eds) (2003) Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volume 3, Insects. Gale, 2003.
- ^ Rabuzzi, M. 1997. Butterfly etymology. Cultural Entomology November 1997 Fourth issue online Archived 3 December 1998 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Church Releases Butterflies as Symbol of Rebirth". The St. Augustine Record. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
- ^ Dorset Chronicle, May 1825, reprinted in: "The First Butterfly", in The Every-day Book and Table Book; or, Everlasting Calendar of Popular Amusements, etc. Vol III., ed. William Hone, (London: 1838) p 678.
- ^ "Superstitions and Beliefs Related to Death". Living in the Philippines. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
- Cultural Entomology Digest(3).
- ^ "Beads UC7549". Petrie Museum Catalogue. The Petrie Museum, UCL. Archived from the original on 16 September 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2015. There is a photograph in the catalogue; it is free for non-commercial usage.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-451-21409-6.
- ^ ISBN 1-58544-459-6.
- ISBN 9780674017535.
- ^ Nihonto
- )
- ISBN 0-8478-2361-X.
- ^ Trueman, John W. H.; Rowe, Richard J. "Odonata: Dragonflies and Damselflies". Tree of Life. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
- ^ ISBN 0-8014-2592-1.
- JSTOR 3087894.