The Honey-Makers

Half natural history, half literature: how the honey-bee actually works — tongue, wings, sting, swarm — and then three thousand years of what people have believed about her, from the Vedas to mead.

In Greece and Italy

36 pages in this part of The Honey-Makers.

In Greece and Italy (It is to be noted that Greek)

It is to be noted that Greek literature treats mainly of the product of the bee rather than, as in India, of the bee itself; although in…

In Greece and Italy: Ceres

Cybele, or Rhea, the great Earth-mother, is, like Vishnu, though to a less extent, the creator of living things, and like him she is often…

In Greece and Italy: Apollo

The bees are also related to the sun god, and the priestesses of Apollo are called Melissæ, the pythoness herself being termed by Pindar…

In Greece and Italy: Aristæus

Aristæus, the father of bee-culture, was the son of Apollo, and an offering was brought to Apollo as the god of the bees on the 24th of…

In Greece and Italy: Glaukos

Some have interpreted the resurrection of Glaukos in the legend as due to his having been buried in honey.

In Greece and Italy: Dionysos

In Oriental countries honey very often constituted a part of the first food of children, and in its capacity of providing nourishment…

In Greece and Italy: Euripides

Bacchus, as the distributer of flowers over the meadows, easily became the father of the bees, or the creator of honey, - an honor…

In Greece and Italy: Hades

To the underworld deities, to Hades and Hekate, as well as to the spirits of the dead, honey was offered, as Æschylus describes in his…

In Greece and Italy: Charon

In one of Lucian's comedies Charon comes from the underworld to view things and people in the world above, and Mercury conducts him about…

In Greece and Italy: Cupid

Cupid does not, like Kāma, bear a bow strung with bees, but we are told that he sometimes dips the golden arrow that incites love in honey…

In Greece and Italy: Venus

Loud and piteous are his cries; To Venus quick he runs, he flies! "Oh, mother! - I am wounded through - I die with pain - in sooth I do!

In Greece and Italy: Saturn

Porphyry alludes to intoxicating honey in his "Cave of the Nymphs," where he tells us : - "In Orpheus, likewise, Saturn is ensnared by…

In Greece and Italy: Dionysius

A swarm of bees did not always portend evil, however, for Cicero in his "Essay on Divination" tells the following of Dionysius, King of…

In Greece and Italy: Onesilus

Herodotus tells of a prodigy by which the bees gained tardy but earnest recognition for a slain leader from his slayers. Onesilus the…

In Greece and Italy: Plato

Cicero relates, in his work on divination, the belief concerning Plato: - "While Plato was an infant in his cradle, a swarm of bees settled…

In Greece and Italy: Nestor

Homer compares a great army to a swarm of bees, but his bees are the wild, rock-dwelling tribes, as in the second book of the "Iliad,"…

In Greece and Italy: Hippolytus

Euripides also gives us the following beautiful description of a meadow in his tragedy "Hippolytus." Hippolytus enters with his huntsmen…

In Greece and Italy: Martial

And again Virgil sings : - "On this side, a hedge planted at the adjoining boundary, whose willow blossoms are ever fed on by Hyblæan bees…

In Greece and Italy: Theocritus

In the "Idyls of Theocritus" the bees play a delightful part, and one here feels a slight sense of that comradeship with them which makes…

In Greece and Italy: Daphnis

Daphnis won the prize for singing among the goatherds. "So sang the lads, and the goatherd thus bespoke them: ""Sweet is thy mouth, O…

In Greece and Italy: Bion

In his lament for the poet Bion, Moschus sings, - "Thy sudden doom, O Bion, Apollo himself lamented, and the Satyrs mourned thee, and the…

In Greece and Italy: Athenæus

Very much can be said about the use of honey as food among the ancients. With them it was one of the staples of life, as well as a luxury…

In Greece and Italy: Chrysippus

Athenæus, desiring to enlighten posterity on the subject of cheesecakes, has given us a few recipes which are interesting if not…

In Greece and Italy: Cheesecakes

In Greece and Italy "But praise the cheesecakes which from Athens come; And if there are none, still of any country Cheesecakes are to be…

In Greece and Italy: Philetas

At Argos, we are told, was a kind of cheesecake brought to the bridegroom from the bride, - "It is roasted on the coals, and the friends of…

In Greece and Italy: Honeycakes

Honeycakes that were not cheesecakes were also held in high esteem, as we learn from Archippus in "Heracles Marrying," - - "The board was…

In Greece and Italy: Aristophanes

We must not overlook a certain thin cake made of sesame and honey which has had the honor of being mentioned by Anacreon, Aristophanes, and…

In Greece and Italy: Colophonian

Nicander the Colophonian, in his "Dialects," says that celebe is a vessel used by the shepherds in which they preserve honey. For…

In Greece and Italy: English

He tells us : "There were rivers With tender pulse and blackest soup o'er flowing, There too were cakes of groats well steep'd in milk, In…

In Greece and Italy: Solon

That bees were extensively cultivated in Greece before 600 B. C. we know from the fact that one of Solon's laws related to them, for…

In Greece and Italy: Aristotle

Bee-keeping in the time of Aristotle did not differ essentially from bee-keeping fifty years ago, in some respects being superior, as…

In Greece and Italy: Greeks

We recall also the simile of the bees killed by smoke in Lycophron's "Cassandra." 1 The ancient Greeks knew all that could be known…

In Greece and Italy: Pliny

The Roman Pliny, some four hundred years later than Aristotle, wrote an elaborate treatise on bees as a part of his "Natural History." His…

In Greece and Italy: Virgil

The Roman Varro wrote upon bees just before Virgil; and Columella, who a little later than Virgil also wrote upon agriculture and…

In Greece and Italy: Roman

It was not only among the agriculturists, however, that bees were valued. At the time of the Roman Empire the love of bee-keeping…

In Greece and Italy: Adonis

Wax images and wax fruits were also extensively used in the celebrations of the festival of the resurrection of Adonis, though this…

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