Dante on the “Angelic Butterfly”

In the matter of this particular image, seeing humans caught in a transformative process like the one enacted by caterpillars and butterflies, Nabokov was scooped by Dante in the Divine Comedy.

A Still Small Voice

My son looked on with interest. “First he has to eat food,” Saulie commented. “And then when he’s done eating, he says to the bees ‘Can you play with us?'”