Common cultural depiction often use swallowtail butterflies to represent the grace and free nature of the ineffable human soul. Other concepts associated with swallowtail butterflies are hope, endurance, change, and life.
swal·low·tail ˈswäl-ō-ˌtāl. : a deeply forked and tapering tail (as of a swallow) : any of various usually large butterflies in which the hind wing is elongated into a process that resembles a tail
type of migratory bird (family Hirundinidae), Old English swealwe "swallow," from Proto-Germanic *swalwon (source also of Old Saxon, Old Norse, Old Frisian, Swedish svala, Danish svale, Middle Dutch zwalewe, Dutch zwaluw, Old High German swalawa, German Schwalbe), from PIE *swol-wi- (source also of Russian solowej, Slovak slavik, Polish słowik "nightingale").
The etymological sense is disputed. Popularly regarded as harbingers of summer; swallows building nests on or near a house is considered good luck. The Latin name was hirundo, hence the genus name. Some sources propose an onomatopoeic origin, which de Vaan finds "possible, but the suffix remains unclear;" he suggests as more likely the suggestion that the swallow is named for its forked tail, which could connect it with wand
Wand
c. 1200, from Old Norse vondr "rod, switch" (cognate with Gothic wandus "rod," Middle Swedish vander), from Proto-Germanic *wend- "to turn," see wind (v.1)). The notion is of a bending, flexible stick. Compare cognate Old Norse veggr, Old English wag "wall," Old Saxon, Dutch wand, Old High German want, German Wand "wall," originally "wickerwork for making walls," or "wall made of wattle-work" (an insight into early Germanic domestic architecture). Magic wand is attested from c. 1400 and shows the etymological sense of "suppleness" already had been lost.