The Games Gods Play

Butterflies are a recurring motif within the narrative that supports the overarching themes of The Value of Love and The Burden of Immortality. Butterflies are first used symbolically in reference to Hades, who not only has a tattoo of a butterfly he can summon but often wears butterflies as a design in his clothing. For Hades, butterflies are representative of humans and their overall relationship with the gods, as for beings with unending lifespans, the existence of individual humans is comparable to that of a butterfly from a human’s perspective. By taking on the butterfly as his own symbol, however, Hades outwardly not only claims ownership over humans by virtue of his reign over the Underworld but also signals a greater appreciation for and connection to humans than other gods espouse. In this way, the butterfly becomes a symbol of his reign and a symbol of his difference for Hades from the other Olympian gods who see humans as nothing more than pawns for their whims and games. By the end of the narrative, however, the meaning of the butterfly shifts. It becomes the symbol of Hades’s union with Lyra, as he reconstructs his symbol to be that of two butterflies who, when put together, come together as one.