DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.810#0417
788
THE BUTTERFLY AS HUMAN SOUL
Butter-
flies as
Minoan
emblems
of life
after
death.
transitional M. M. Ill d-L,. M. I a phase, and an identical type is seen on the
embossed gold plates found in the Third Shaft Grave of Mycenae, associated,
as we have seen, with a L. M. I a ' rhyton'.
The appearance, in this Mycenae grave, of figures of butterflies of the
same type embossed on the plates of gold scales and associated with pendent
gold chrysalises itself suggested a
very definite religious intention.
Schliemann (though he was rightly
led to compare these funereal scales
with the Egyptian weighing of the
heart of the dead man by Thoth
and Anubis against the ' feather of
Truth '), curiously, missed the signi-
ficance of the butterflies, and indeed
mistook the gold chrysalises for ■•£■: yellow
Ring
' grasshoppers '-1 But the ' Ring of
Nestor', which has afforded the first
illuminating' insight into Minoan
SBLUE
lllll RED
Fig. 514. Butterfly beside 'Priest-King'
beliefs regarding a World Beyond, Relief.
shows that the chrysalis and but-
terfly were in truth regarded as symbolic of the reawakening of the soul by
divine grace after the short sleep of death.2 In the field of this remarkable
signet, divided by the trunk and two lateral branches of the ' Tree of
the World '—the Minoan Yggdrasil—the Goddess appears in the initial space
with two butterflies fluttering about her head, and a pair of chrysalises above,
followed in the second scene by the young couple, to whom they refer, about
to set forth on their Elysian pilgrimage. In the lower scene the pair are in
turn ushered into the presence of the enthroned Griffin—searcher of hearts—
behind whom, again the Goddess stands, to receive them into the abode of
bliss. In the light of this evidence it would seem that the embossed butterflies
cut out of gold plate, found with the scales referred to, point to the idea of
a weighing of souls as also having formed part of the initiatory examination.
1 Mycenae, p. 156, Figs. 259, 260, and note.
2 A. E., The Ring of Nestor, &-r., p. 53 seqq.
and see above, p. 482, Fig. 280. The chrysalises
were in this case identified by ProfessorPoulton,
F.R.S., the eminent archaeological authority, as
those of the 'Common White' or'Cabbage'but-
terfly (Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1924, lxxix seqq.).
A golden chrysalis, much more naturalistically
rendered than those of the Shaft Grave, was
found by Mr. Wace and the excavators of the
British School in a tomb of the Kalkani
Cemetery at Mycenae (see op. at., p. 55, Fig.
47). A preliminary publication of this ap-
peared in the Illustrated London A'ezvs, Feb. 24,
1923, p. 684.
THE BUTTERFLY AS HUMAN SOUL
Butter-
flies as
Minoan
emblems
of life
after
death.
transitional M. M. Ill d-L,. M. I a phase, and an identical type is seen on the
embossed gold plates found in the Third Shaft Grave of Mycenae, associated,
as we have seen, with a L. M. I a ' rhyton'.
The appearance, in this Mycenae grave, of figures of butterflies of the
same type embossed on the plates of gold scales and associated with pendent
gold chrysalises itself suggested a
very definite religious intention.
Schliemann (though he was rightly
led to compare these funereal scales
with the Egyptian weighing of the
heart of the dead man by Thoth
and Anubis against the ' feather of
Truth '), curiously, missed the signi-
ficance of the butterflies, and indeed
mistook the gold chrysalises for ■•£■: yellow
Ring
' grasshoppers '-1 But the ' Ring of
Nestor', which has afforded the first
illuminating' insight into Minoan
SBLUE
lllll RED
Fig. 514. Butterfly beside 'Priest-King'
beliefs regarding a World Beyond, Relief.
shows that the chrysalis and but-
terfly were in truth regarded as symbolic of the reawakening of the soul by
divine grace after the short sleep of death.2 In the field of this remarkable
signet, divided by the trunk and two lateral branches of the ' Tree of
the World '—the Minoan Yggdrasil—the Goddess appears in the initial space
with two butterflies fluttering about her head, and a pair of chrysalises above,
followed in the second scene by the young couple, to whom they refer, about
to set forth on their Elysian pilgrimage. In the lower scene the pair are in
turn ushered into the presence of the enthroned Griffin—searcher of hearts—
behind whom, again the Goddess stands, to receive them into the abode of
bliss. In the light of this evidence it would seem that the embossed butterflies
cut out of gold plate, found with the scales referred to, point to the idea of
a weighing of souls as also having formed part of the initiatory examination.
1 Mycenae, p. 156, Figs. 259, 260, and note.
2 A. E., The Ring of Nestor, &-r., p. 53 seqq.
and see above, p. 482, Fig. 280. The chrysalises
were in this case identified by ProfessorPoulton,
F.R.S., the eminent archaeological authority, as
those of the 'Common White' or'Cabbage'but-
terfly (Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1924, lxxix seqq.).
A golden chrysalis, much more naturalistically
rendered than those of the Shaft Grave, was
found by Mr. Wace and the excavators of the
British School in a tomb of the Kalkani
Cemetery at Mycenae (see op. at., p. 55, Fig.
47). A preliminary publication of this ap-
peared in the Illustrated London A'ezvs, Feb. 24,
1923, p. 684.