The Butterfly
Psyche
The soul, emerging transformed.
The Butterfly: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
In Greek psyche means both soul and butterfly. The caterpillar that dissolves in its chrysalis and comes out winged is the oldest image of transformation, and of the soul leaving the body.
The Greeks carved the butterfly on tombs and painted the soul as a small winged figure leaving the mouth of the dead; Apuleius’s tale of Psyche, who is set tasks by Venus and at last married to Love among the gods, is the one ancient telling of the soul’s trials, and Erich Neumann gave it a whole commentary as the development of the feminine.
The chrysalis, in which the caterpillar dissolves entirely before the wings form, is the clearest image in nature of the solutio and the coagulatio that follow each other in the work.
The Butterfly: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Psyche, beloved of Eros, often shown with butterfly wings; Zhuangzi, who dreamt he was a butterfly and woke not knowing whether he was a man dreaming or a butterfly dreaming; the butterfly on Christian tombs. The butterfly of Psyche on Roman sarcophagi; the butterfly souls of the Aztecs, warriors returning; Nabokov’s butterflies; the butterfly dream of Zhuangzi.
From the Sources
Bulfinch explains that the Greek name for the butterfly, Psyche, also means the soul, and calls the butterfly bursting from its tomb the most striking illustration of the immortality of the soul.
“The Greek name for a butterfly is Psyche, and the same word means the soul. There is no illustration of the immortality of the soul so striking and beautiful as the butterfly, bursting on brilliant wings from the tomb in which it has lain”
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable, The Age of Chivalry, Legends of Charlemagne, The Age of Fable, Chapter XI, "Cupid and Psyche". Complete in one volume, Project Gutenberg eBook #4928. The text, read in part
The Britannica describes Psyche as the personification of the human soul, shown in Greek and Graeco-Roman art as a maiden with bird's or butterfly's wings, or simply as a butterfly.
“The story of the love of Eros (Cupid) for Psyche is a philosophical allegory, founded upon the Platonic conception of the soul. In this connexion Psyche was represented in Greek and Graeco-Roman art as a tender maiden, with bird’s or butterfly’s wings, or simply as a butterfly.”
Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition: Psyche, 'Psyche'. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, as transcribed on Wikisource. The text, read in full
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
Where to Read
- The Book of Symbols, Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (2010)
- Erich Neumann, Amor and Psyche: The Psychic Development of the Feminine (1952)
- Apuleius, Metamorphoses IV–VI
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Soul.
Also among Small Creatures
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Butterfly.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/butterfly.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
Nearby in the alphabet: The Bridge: The way across what divides. The Bull: Fertile strength, offered in sacrifice. The Caduceus: Two serpents about a winged staff: opposites held in balance. Calcinatio: The fire that dries and purifies.