Tuesday 16 March 2010

from the Garden of Cyrus

Lastly, The incession or locall motion of animals is made with analogy unto this figure, by decussative diametrals, Quincunciall Lines and angles. For to omit the enquiry how Butterflies and breezes move their four wings....

3 comments:

  1. Delightful decusations of the Quincunciall order! B. also mentions, 'the Butterfly bloomes of luguminous plants', in Cyrus; and the markings on butterfly wings are sometimes for camouflage.

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  2. The Ancient Greek word for "butterfly" is ψυχή (psȳchē), which primarily means "soul", "mind" (Source-Wikipedia)

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  3. Netted a third butterfly for you in the Garden! Perhaps like the most frequently mentioned plant in the Garden, Ivy, a symbol of ever-lasting life, butterflies are named in Cyrus because of their symbolic association, perhaps because Browne's 'active imagination', unconsciously recollected that the Ancient Greek word for "butterfly" is ψυχή (psȳchē), which primarily means "soul", "mind"???

    'That the colour of the Caterpillar will shew again in the Butterfly, with some latitude is allowable. Though the regular spots in their wings seem but a mealie adhesion, and such as may be wiped away, yet since they come in this variety, out of their cases, there must be regular pores in those parts and membranes, defining such Exudations'. (chapter 30

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Persian textile pattern detail on House.