The insect human connection between flies and societies across the world is surprisingly consistent.
It is no surprise that flies and humans are tied together given the name of the titular insect - the house fly or Musca domestica. Its association with life, death. and decay, there is a role the fly has played in human culture and stories as continued in “I heard a Fly Buzz When I Died”. Humans are repulsed by flies, bitten by flies, and weave stories around them.
Flies congregate around the dead and dying, this relationship between sickness, death and flies was noticed all over the world. Across the world flies are symbols of death, sickness, laziness, excess, and short life. In the poem, the fly is a central figure. It is there in the still air when the person is dying. It is there in the end, when all the stuff has been signed away, as the last sight before death. It is a Grim Reaper, death personified. The fly is there to remind the reader through its uncertain and stumbling buzz, that death is awkward and sudden.
It is no surprise that flies and humans are tied together given the name of the titular insect - the house fly or Musca domestica. Its association with life, death. and decay, there is a role the fly has played in human culture and stories as continued in “I heard a Fly Buzz When I Died”. Humans are repulsed by flies, bitten by flies, and weave stories around them.
Flies congregate around the dead and dying, this relationship between sickness, death and flies was noticed all over the world. Across the world flies are symbols of death, sickness, laziness, excess, and short life. In the poem, the fly is a central figure. It is there in the still air when the person is dying. It is there in the end, when all the stuff has been signed away, as the last sight before death. It is a Grim Reaper, death personified. The fly is there to remind the reader through its uncertain and stumbling buzz, that death is awkward and sudden.
The image of a fly being a Grim Reaper, there at the moment between life and death, is a global trend.
Flies have long held a connection to death and the gods of death. In Babylon, flies were used on seals to symbolize the god of death Nergal.
There is of course Beelzebub, who was derived from a Philistine god, who is titled "Lord of the Flies" and depicted as a fly with skulls on his wings in the middle ages, signifying he brings death with him. In Abrahamic religions, he is a demon or even Satan, the ruler of hell. In the Bible, swarms of flies are a literal plague god sends. The Philistines drew a connection between their god Ba'al and cults of flies. Because flies are seen feasting on feces and walking on their food, they were labeled as pests and seen as a source of the disease. In an Ugaritic text, Ba'al drove out swarms of them to heal a person. This connection between flies, illness, and death continues in Mesopotamia, corpses floating on the waters from the great flood are likened to flies. Here again you can see the connection in society of corpses and flies. The only myths where flies are not consistently reviled is in Native American legends. In our modern culture, flies have faded from bringers of sickness and death to nuisances. The label of disgusting is also shared with most insects. We are a society removed from death, so creatures and figures associated with the dead have faded. – and then, I could not see to see – And all that is left is a lazy fly stumbling around our summer picnic, waiting for our death. |
Fly around the world
Other meanings of flies
In a Sumerian poem, about the Sumerian goddess Inanna, later know as Istar, and her husband Dumuzid, a fly is a symbol of help. Dumuzid is being chased by galla demons and
the fly helps aids Inanna by telling her where he is. |
In Norse Mythology, Loki the Trickster god shape shifted into a fly to win a bet with Dwarven forge-masters. In the same vein of flies as symbols of cheating and sin, Hera sent a fly to torment Zeus' mistress Io.
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In Native American legends, while many tribes associated them with disease and evil magic, southwestern tribes told tales of flies who brought fire to humans, Notedly, the Montagnais of eastern Canada thought a fly called the Big Biter ruled and guarded the fish from wasteful fishing.
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