Greek Gold and Garnet Butterfly Necklace, Late 4th-3rd Century BC
Jewelry items like this were generally used as funeral goods. In this case it’s likely that the owner was a wealthy woman from the early Hellenistic period.
Butterflies are a rare representation in ancient Greek jewelry. The butterfly is linked to the chthonic (subterranean or underworld) sphere. According to a popular Greek and Roman belief, the butterfly, referred to as “psyche” by Aristotle in his History of Animals (IV, 7; V, 19), symbolized the soul leaving the body after death.
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