-------- Original Message --------
And, or course, re: this etymology of Psyche, it is equally rich that Nabokov's
major papers in science were published in that journal. As an aside to
these comments, many lepidopterists are equally grateful to the student's
of Nabokov's literature-- who have enriched lepidopterists' perspective
on "the great man". So, the "doings" of the last decade have worked very
well, both ways.
KURT JOHNSON
SEE EDITOR's COMMENT at end
-------- Original Message --------
There is not only one attractive phrase in Stan. Milkowsky's
letter. This may be implied, but psyche means both butterfly and soul in
Greek. For all I know, there is (or was) a lepidopterist magazine which
has Psyche for title. In a footnote to one of his poems Coleridge says that
'psyche means both butterfly and soul '. So to point out the resemblance
of soul to a butterfly does not seem so inadequate, at least as far as ety
mology is concerned.
Sergei
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Ed. Note. Yes, there is a lepdopterist journal PSYCHE and VN was well aware
of the analogy. He often used it in his Russian poetry. In response to
a Russian cleric who made the analogy, VN also remarked that butterflies
were attracted to corpses.