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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 tragedy of "The Persians.” Atossa, the queen mother, having had her ill-omened dreams confirmed by news of the defeat of the Persian army under her son Xerxes, brings libations for her dead husband, Darius, and says:- "I return, and bear Libations soothing to the father's shade In the son's cause; delicious milk, that foams White from the sacred heifer; liquid honey, Extract of flow'rs."
Euripides also in his "Iphigenia in Tauris" speaks of honey libations to the dead, where Iphigenia, lamenting the death of her brother, says: - "For him, as dead, with pious care This goblet I prepare; And on the bosom of the earth shall flow Streams from the heifer mountain-bred, The grape's rich juice, and mix'd with these, The labor of the yellow bees, Libations soothing to the dead.
Give me the oblation: let me hold The foaming goblet's hallowed gold."