Fluttering to the Flame: Moths in Art, Literature, and Poetry

What do you imagine moths to be? Fuzzy delusional insects fluttering towards a flame to die? Beautiful nocturnal winged insects? The insect on the lips of actress Jodie Foster in the Hollywood movie poster of The Silence of the Lambs? Or just misinterpreted kin of butterflies? Since time immemorial, artists and thinkers have considered moths curious creatures, flitting in the dark searching for light. This odd behaviour has captured the human imagination — countless references are found across different cultures. Many artists, poets, and thinkers have been inspired by moths and celebrated them in their work.

Moths have been depicted in African hunter-gatherer rock art at Eland Cave in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and Raiders Gorge, says Hollmann in a 2007 article. According to an article by Nazari, V., & Evans, L. (2015), a painting in an Egyptian tomb (dating to around 1350 BCE) is the oldest human depiction of butterflies. The species painted is likely an African monarch (Danaus chrysippus), a close relative of the North American monarch (Danaus plexippus).

Though moths evolved before butterflies, the latter gets the limelight and the positive pop-culture reputation of being angelic, symbols of happiness, good luck, love, and everything nice. They are day-flying, often have vivid colours and are visible around flowers. Compared to butterflies, moths are typically nocturnal, stout-bodied, and dull-coloured, contributing to their image of being gloomy. In pursuit of your porch light, moths are more likely (than butterflies) to fly into your face while you are enjoying your beer on a summer night. 

As they undergo metamorphosis, winged adult moths emerge from caterpillars and are seen as a symbol of transformation (like butterflies), which also links them to the idea of death and rebirth. Moths are considered “dark” and considered a bad omen in popular beliefs across various cultures. In western folklore, the idea of death and darkness is closely related to moths due to their suicidal flight towards a flame (light source). There are numerous western urban legends and myths associated with moths (like in the title of the movie, The Mothman Prophecies, 2002).

Appearances aside, moths have an immense ecological role in a terrestrial ecosystem. They are important pollinators, especially for night-blooming flowers; adults and caterpillars are crucial as food not only for many birds and bats but also for humans in some parts of the world. Recently, scientists have found that the greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella) larvae can digest plastic, which is a possible solution to the most significant of environmental perils. In some Asian countries, one of the most expensive teas (used for medicinal purposes) is made from the frass (droppings) of moths.

In general, insects are represented in an astounding array of art, culture, and literature worldwide. This tells us that humans have appreciated these tiny creatures through the centuries. However, just like our modern-day ignorance of insects, insect-related art and literature hasn’t got much attention, but they are an important reminder that insects are so much more than pests. 

Art of the moth

In 1889, the famous painter Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo, “Yesterday I drew a very large, rather rare night moth there which is called the death’s head, its coloration astonishingly distinguished: black, grey, white, shaded, and with glints of carmine or vaguely tending towards olive green; it’s very big. To paint it I would have had to kill it, and that would have been a shame since the animal was so beautiful.”

Van Gogh painted the moth using his sketch as a reference, calling it a “death’s-head moth” and adding a skull-like mark on the thorax. His identification was wrong. It was actually the giant peacock moth, the largest moth species in Europe with no skull markings.

One of the most unheralded naturalists, Maria Sybilla Merian, a 17th-century botanist and illustrator, was the first to document insect metamorphosis in art form. Her moth and butterfly classifications are still used in taxonomy. Her fascination for studying insect lifecycles started at the age of 13 when she first reared a silk moth. In an era in which men completely dominated science, Merian challenged the prevalent ideas of insect lifecycles. She went on expeditions to places as far as Surinam to study insects and create detailed art.

Literary inspiration

Not only the diversity and patterns of moths (or insects in general) but their behaviours (e.g nocturnality, metamorphosis) pique human interest. Few insect behaviours have evoked as much passion and inspired literary minds as the spontaneity, fragility and transience of a moth flying towards a flame. There are many theories about why moths fly towards light, and though researchers have tried to understand this behaviour, we don’t have a definitive answer yet. The most common explanation is that moths orient themselves to distant celestial light sources and maintain a constant angle relative to that source of light (transverse orientation). Artificial light sources on Earth disorient them and cause confusion, which makes moths fly towards this light.

Intrigue surrounding a moth getting attracted to the fire that will burn it has many translations and depictions.

“Thus hath the candle sing’d the moth. O these deliberate fools! When they do choose, they have their wisdom by the wit to choose” —Merchant of Venice (Act 2 Scene 9), William Shakespeare

This reference of the fatal attraction is perhaps the most well-known in English literature. The Bhagvad Gita also notes: “Men rush to their doom like moths flying to their death in the candle-flame.”

In the 18th and 19th centuries, poets, lovers, and artists gathered in the evenings at candle-lit entertainment events (mehfils) to share their work; this is where ghazal poetry originated in Arabia and travelled to India via Persia. Moths flitting around these gatherings and hurling themselves into a candle flame stirred passions and lit up the mehfil. Both the 19th-century Urdu poet Ghalib and the 20th-century ghazal poet Ahmad Mushtaq eloquently included the behaviour of moths in their poetry.

Mehr Farooqi, professor of Urdu and South Asian Languages, University of Virginia, in her article titled “Moth”, writes: “The ghazal is another universe, another garden. It is a universe where the moth is in love with the lighted candle, the bulbul craves for the rose”. She also explains Ghalib’s poetry. For instance:

Par-e parvanah shayad badban-e kishti-e mai tha

Hui majlis ki garmi se ravani daur-e saghar ki

She explains this as: “Wine is sloshing in the wine jug because of the moths passion which seeps into the gathering”.

The moth-candle metaphor still mesmerises poets and is used in modern poetry.  

Flying through Bollywood

A moth’s flight to the flame, even though the attraction leads to death, is a powerful theme repeated in Bollywood. To mention a few, the ‘50s hit movie Shama Parwana (Light and the Moth) and the two phrases from the famous song, “In aankhon ki masti mein” from the movie Umrao Jaan (1981)

Is sham-e-faroza ko aandhi se daraatey ho

Is sham-e-faroza ke parvane hazaron hain

(You scare the candle that lights up the evening with a storm,

there are thousands of moths that still love it)

Being the most successful and diverse organisms that live on land, the importance of insects has been stressed in recent events of “insect Armageddon” wherein large populations have been wiped out globally. Insects have influenced many aspects of human culture, and highlighting those can curb our destructiveness towards nature and ourselves. Given the influence of human activity on nature, it is imperative to find ways to evoke empathy and a connection with nature. In the face of a biodiversity crisis, art and poetry may live longer than the species themselves. Scientists and experts give us the facts and statistics of the global biodiversity crisis. Art and poetry tell us stories. When effectively told, such narratives can provide the incentive to appreciate what is overlooked and inspire us to seek more knowledge — all crucial steps towards saving dwindling populations of insects before we lose them.

Photo source (cover), Photo source (tomb of Nebamun), Photo source (Great Peacock Moth), Photo source (Maria Sybilla Merian)