The butterfly is a symbol of the metamorphosis of life. Of the will to radically transform its physical and spiritual reality. We have already seen how the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío (1867-1916), in the verses outlined, metaphorically drew Hipsípila emerging from the chrysalis, abandoning the comfortable golden shelter – that is precisely the Greek term Khrysallis, “golden” – and launching to fly towards adult life. As a lepidopteran that is the butterfly, its semantic roots – lepido (scale) and ptero (wing) – bring us echoes of two opposing worlds: the aquatic one, because we usually associate the scales with the figure of the fish, and the aerial one.
Ivan De La Torre
