· In middle Europe butterflies are seen as the harbingers of spring.

· In general butterflies mean freedom, lightness and detachment.

· People used to think butterflies were witches or fairies in disguise stealing butter, cream and milk. This could also be the reason for the name butterfly.

· Some people still believe that certain moths come to cowsheds at night to the cows’ udders.

· In many countries people consider butterflies as human souls:

· In legends butterflies are the souls of dead persons or bring luck.

· The Slavs open the door or a window so that the deceased person’s soul, often represented as a butterfly, can leave the body.

· In antiquity the Greek considered butterflies as dead people’s spirits

· In many countries pictures of butterflies can be seen on tombstones.

· In Finland some people believe the butterfly soul of a dreaming person flutters peacefully above the bed.

· The belief that butterflies developed from the tears of the Mary comes from Romania.

· In Greek mythology Psyche, sweetheart of Eros, is often represented with butterfly wings.

· The Hindus’ mythology also deals with butterflies: watching the change of caterpillars Brahma became filled with deep calm and was convinced to achieve perfection through rebirth.

· Chuang-tse, a representative of Taoism, got the nickname "butterfly philosopher" because he dreamed he was a butterfly and enjoyed flying around and sucking nectar.

· Johann Wolfgang Goethe, a German poet, called butterflies "products of air and light". He was also very impressed by the change from pupa to butterfly.
Other poets like Shakespeare, Spenser, Shelley, Keats and Wordsworth were fond of the butterflies’ beauty, too.

· In the Middle Ages the monk Albertus Magnus thought caterpillars laid eggs and weren’t related to butterflies. He called butterflies "winged worms of different colors".

· Plinius thought caterpillars developed when dew-drops fell on a tree’s leaves in spring.

· The Germans say a person in love has "butterflies in the belly".

· In antiquity and in the Middle Ages big swarms of butterflies were read as bad omens predicting wars and epidemics.