Insects in Folklore and Mythology
Long before entomology existed as a science, humans wove insects into their mythologies, religions, art, and folklore. Across every continent and culture, insects have served as symbols of transformation, death, rebirth, industry, and even divine power. Their ubiquity in human cultural expression reflects the profound — and often ambivalent — relationship between people and the six-legged world.
The Sacred Scarab of Egypt
Perhaps the most famous insect in mythology is the scarab beetle (Scarabaeus sacer), which held immense religious significance in ancient Egypt for over 3,000 years. The Egyptians observed dung beetles rolling balls of dung across the ground and saw a parallel with the sun god Khepri rolling the sun across the sky each day.
Scarab amulets were among the most common objects in Egyptian culture, placed on the hearts of mummies to ensure safe passage to the afterlife. The beetle's life cycle — larvae emerging from the dung ball — was interpreted as spontaneous generation, symbolising creation, rebirth, and the cyclical nature of existence.
Scarab Symbolism
- Khepri: The scarab-headed god of the rising sun, creation, and renewal.
- Heart scarabs: Large stone scarabs placed on mummies' chests, inscribed with spells from the Book of the Dead.
- Royal seals: Pharaohs used scarab-shaped seals for official documents.
- The word "Khepri" comes from the Egyptian kheper, meaning "to come into being" — directly inspired by the beetle's emergence from dung.
Butterflies: Souls and Transformation
The butterfly's metamorphosis — from crawling caterpillar to soaring winged adult — has made it a universal symbol of transformation, resurrection, and the human soul. In ancient Greek, the word for butterfly (psyche) is the same as the word for soul. The goddess Psyche was depicted with butterfly wings, and her story of death and rebirth through love became one of the most enduring myths in Western culture.
| Culture | Butterfly Belief |
|---|---|
| Ancient Greece | Psyche (butterfly/soul) — butterflies represented departed souls |
| Japan | Butterflies symbolise joy and longevity; two butterflies together represent marital happiness |
| Aztec Mexico | Warriors who died in battle were believed to return as butterflies and hummingbirds |
| Ireland | Butterflies were thought to carry the souls of the dead to the afterlife |
| China | The butterfly lovers Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai — one of China's great love stories — ends with the couple transformed into butterflies |
| Día de los Muertos (Mexico) | Monarch butterflies arriving in Mexico in autumn are believed to carry the souls of deceased ancestors |
Bees: Industry, Royalty, and Divinity
Bees have been revered across cultures for their industriousness, cooperation, and the sweetness of their honey. In many traditions, bees were considered sacred or semi-divine.
- Ancient Greece: The priestesses of Artemis at Ephesus were called Melissae (bees). Honey was believed to be the food of the gods.
- Christianity: Bees symbolised diligence, cooperation, and the soul. The beehive represented the Church, with the queen bee as a symbol of the Virgin Mary.
- Napoleonic France: Napoleon Bonaparte adopted the bee as his personal emblem, symbolising immortality and resurrection (replacing the Bourbon fleur-de-lis).
- Hinduism: The god Vishnu is sometimes depicted as a blue bee resting on a lotus flower. The god Kama (love) carries a bowstring made of bees.
Did you know? In many European folk traditions, it was customary to "tell the bees" when their keeper died. Failing to inform the hive of the beekeeper's death — or of a wedding, birth, or other major event — was believed to cause the bees to leave, stop producing honey, or die. This tradition persisted in Britain well into the 20th century.
Spiders in Myth
Though not insects (they are arachnids), spiders are so deeply entwined with insect folklore that they merit inclusion. The Greek myth of Arachne — a mortal weaver transformed into a spider by the goddess Athena — gave the class Arachnida its name. In West African and Caribbean traditions, Anansi the spider is a trickster god and folk hero, embodying cunning and wisdom.
Ants: Industry and Warfare
Ants feature in folklore worldwide as symbols of hard work, foresight, and collective strength. Aesop's fable of the ant and the grasshopper — in which the industrious ant stores food for winter while the lazy grasshopper starves — has been told for over 2,500 years and remains a cornerstone of moral instruction.
In the mythology of the Hopi people of North America, ants are credited with saving humanity during a great flood by sheltering people in their underground nests. The "ant people" (Anu Sinom) play a central role in Hopi creation stories.
Crickets and Luck
Across many cultures, crickets are considered lucky. In China, crickets have been kept as pets for over 2,000 years — both for their song and for cricket fighting, which was a popular pastime among emperors and commoners alike. In European folklore, a cricket on the hearth was a sign of good fortune, and killing one was believed to bring bad luck. Charles Dickens's novella The Cricket on the Hearth (1845) drew on this tradition.
Key Takeaway
Insects have occupied a central place in human mythology and folklore for millennia, serving as powerful symbols of transformation, industry, death, and renewal. From the sacred scarab of Egypt to the soul-bearing butterflies of Mexico, these cultural associations reveal how deeply intertwined human civilisation has always been with the insect world.