Home › Bee-Culture at Present › Bee-Culture at Present: Attica

Bee-Culture at Present: Attica

Honey is still gathered by the bees of Attica and of Sicily, and the honey of Hymettus is eaten in Athens today, there being as many as one hive to each person in the province of Attica. The flowers and the bees are about Hymettus as of old, and the honey retains its ancient fame, though it scarcely deserves to, according to the testimony of Mahaffy, who, in his "Rambles and Studies in Greece," says, taking a view from the Acropolis, and noticing the sterility of the soil : - "Then Thucydides' words come back to us, when he says Attica was 'undisturbed on account of the lightness of its soil,' as early invaders rather looked out for richer pastures. This reflection, too, of Thucydides applies equally to the mountains of Attica, round Athens, which are not covered with rich grass and dense shrubs, like Helicon, like Parnassus, like the hills of Arcadia, but seem so bare that we wonder where the bees of Hymettus can find food for their famous honey. It is only when the traveller ascends the rocky slopes of the mountain that he finds its rugged surface carpeted with quantities of little wild flowers, too insignificant to give the slightest color to the mountain, but Bee-Culture at Present sufficient for the bees, which are still making their honey as of old. This honey of Hymettus, which was our daily food at Athens, is now not very remarkable either for color or flavor. It is very dark, and not by any means so good as the honey produced in other parts of Greece, 一 not to say on the heather hills of Scotland and Ireland. I tasted honey at Thebes and at Corinth, which was much better, especially that of Corinth, made in the hills towards Cleonæ, where the whole country is scented with thyme, and where thousands of bees are buzzing eagerly through the summer air."