1262 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



leaves the bodj' ; it is still half caught in the bust whence it emerges. On 

 painted vases the following types are found : 1. The soul has the form of 

 a little hoplite fluttering near the dead warrior, showing on a small scale 

 the man as he looked when living. 2. It is seen as a bird with a human 

 head, or simply as a bird. An epigram of the anthology shows Plato as 

 an eagle on a tomb looking at the sky. 3. The e'iSoyXov has only a distant 

 resemblance to a human body ; a little winged, slight figure without consis- 

 tency, it flutters near the stela of the dead man in many Athenian leky- 

 thoi. Byzantine art has continued the tradition of Paganism ; in the 

 Death of the Virgin, seen in all Byzantine churches, Christ holds in his 

 arms the soul of the Virgin, a little white-clad flgure, in which a Christian 

 translation of the e't'BaXov is easily recognized. 



The myth of Psyche is depicted in a long series of statues, engraved 

 stones, funeral bas-reliefs and Christian monuments. Psyche is tortured 

 by Eros, who burns her with his torch ; she stands with her hands bound 

 behind her ; she falls at his feet in a supplicating attitude ; and she is held 

 closely in his embrace. In some funeral bas-reliefs Psyche is associated 

 in the Prometheus-myth with the allegory of birth and death. In the sar- 

 cophagus of the Bourbon Museum, she is led up to the newly finished 

 being whom she is to animate, and turns her eyes away from the body ex- 

 tended before her with a gesture of repulsion. On the Capitoline sai- 

 cophagus the subjects are arranged with perfect symmetry : in the middle, 

 Prometheus models the figure of a man, whom Athene animates by plac- 

 ing a butterfly upon his head ; further on, the man has just died ; fi'om his 

 extended body the butterfly flies away ; a funeral genius and a veiled 

 woman are present ; in the background are the three fates. On each side 

 of this central part the subject continues symmeti'ically : on the right, 

 Hermes, conductor of eouls, leads Psyche away ; on the left she is reunited 

 to Eros, whom she embraces. A mural fresco in Pompeii, described by 

 CoUignon, depicts Psyche with her hands bound behind her back, held by 

 an Eros, another Eros, wearing buttei'fly wings, bui'ns her with two 

 torches, a third, flying above Psyche, pours upon her the contents of a 

 vase ; both on the left and on the right of the group stands a figure whose 

 face is hidden. Otto Jahn points out the striking analogy between this 

 fresco and the epigram by Meleager, cited above. 



CoUignon thinks that Psyche represents the immortality of the soul, as 

 a dogma, on Christian monuments, and as a poetic fancy, on some Pagan 

 bas-reliefs. Stephani thinks tiiat the subject was a favorite one on early 

 Christian monuments, because Psyche and Eros are often represented as 

 idealized children, and Christians were to become like children. He also 

 says "no one will doubt that the custom of using the group (that of Eros 

 and Psyche embracing each other) on funeral monuments has been caused 

 by the belief that a corresponding enjoyment in the life beyond would be 



