quality:correction, linguistic:paraphrasing
In art and literature

Butterflies have appeared in art from 3500 years ago in ancient Egypt. In hunting scenes, butterflies were sometimes included in a way that suggested life, freedom, and the strength to escape capture, creating a balance to scenes concerned with death and upholding ma'at. They also were suggestive of regeneration or rebirth and protection. Certain butterflies, such as the tiger butterfly, may have been associated with solar deities, particularly Ra. The tiger butterfly also would have a particular resemblance to the ankh, due to its black body and wingtips, that was likely noted by the Ancient Egyptians. Butterflies may also have been understood as one of the deceased's guides in the afterlife.

In the ancient Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan, the brilliantly coloured image of the butterfly was carved into many temples, buildings, jewellery, and emblazoned on incense burners. The butterfly was sometimes depicted with the maw of a jaguar, and some species were considered to be the reincarnations of the souls of dead warriors. The close association of butterflies with fire and warfare persisted into the Aztec civilisation; evidence of similar jaguar-butterfly images has been found among the Zapotec and Maya civilisations.

Butterflies are widely used in objects of art and jewellery: mounted in frames, embedded in resin, displayed in bottles, laminated in paper, and used in some mixed media artworks and furnishings. The Norwegian naturalist Kjell Sandved compiled a photographic Butterfly Alphabet containing all 26 letters and the numerals 0 to 9 from the wings of butterflies.

Sir John Tenniel drew a famous illustration of Alice meeting a caterpillar for Lewis Carroll 's Alice in Wonderland, c. 1865. The caterpillar is seated on a toadstool and is smoking a hookah; the image can be read as showing either the forelegs of the larva, or as suggesting a face with protruding nose and chin. Eric Carle 's children's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar portrays the larva as an extraordinarily hungry animal, while also teaching children how to count (to five) and the days of the week.

A butterfly appeared in one of Rudyard Kipling 's Just So Stories, " The Butterfly that Stamped ".

One of the most popular, and most often recorded, songs by Sweden 's eighteenth-century bard, Carl Michael Bellman, is " Fjäriln vingad syns på Haga " (The butterfly wingèd is seen in Haga), one of his Fredman's Songs.

Madam Butterfly is a 1904 opera by Giacomo Puccini about a romantic young Japanese bride who is deserted by her American officer husband soon after they are married. It was based on John Luther Long 's short story written in 1898.