archaicwonder:Hellenistic Gold, Garnet and Emerald Butterfly Necklace, 2nd Century BCThe butterfly i
archaicwonder:Hellenistic Gold, Garnet and Emerald Butterfly Necklace, 2nd Century BCThe butterfly is by no means simply a decorative motif, but a symbol of eternal love. It represents Psyche, the personification of the soul, with whose beauty Eros himself fell in love. Psyche is usually represented as a young girl with small butterfly wings. This subject is known in late Hellenistic jewelry, and there are several necklaces that refer to it. The closest parallel is a butterfly necklace from the Olbia Treasure, now in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. There are also other butterfly necklaces, one in the Kofler-Truninger Collection, allegedly from southern Russia; another from Chersonesus, in southern Russia; and a third in the British Museum, London, reportedly from Italy. Similar in composition and style are a necklace from Palaiocastro, Thessaly, in the National Museum, Athens and another from the Artjukhov Barrow in southern Russia. -- source link
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