OCR Text |
Show (honey and wax), and its harmonious community life were observed and idolized. The bee appeared prominently in Greek literature, most importantly in the work of Virgil, who described bee attributes in poetry and so embodied a history of human awe of this small beast. Significantly, bees dwelt harmoniously in colonies of up to two hundred thousand individuals, gave wax which was die earliest of sculpted materials and whose light shone on holy rites, and supplied honey which was not only the most pleasant of food and a potent medicine, but which, when fermented and drunk, freed the soul with some unknown magic. It is easy to imagine how the speculative mind might have interpreted the behavior of this little animal whose mysterious life was protected by a sting and cloistered from view in a hollow log. Even Aristotle, in correctly describing the procreation of most animals, speculated on the mystery of the ways in which bees might have been created and in turn recreated their kind. (He put forward a fairly accurate description which took into account the queen bee, but he ultimately dismissed the hypothesis as too fantastic to be tenable.) He finally concluded that the bee, unlike wasps and hornets, must be of divine origin. Belief in the divinity of the bee is widespread in ancient culture; the number and variety of civilizations which have revered the bee is staggering. Austin Fife contends that no other animal life has had more mythological attention than the bee; many stories survive as evidence of its importance. Zeus hovered over Olympus and counseled Hermes to consult the bees for the future. Mohammed in the Koran relates that the Lord spoke directly to the bee, something he never did with any other animal. In some Hindu drawings, the bee represents heaven; in a Hindu fertility rite, a maiden's generative organ is anointed with honey. Asvins, lord of brightness, is beseeched in historic India to anoint men with honey so their speech will be more persuasive. According to the Mishra, beehives adorned the vestments of the priests of ancient Judaism. Early Christianity inherited a tradition of bee worship which it incorporated into its own sacred mythology. We find early Christian accounts of the bee as a symbol of the chaste and the wise, as the foreteller of weather, the future, and the fate of armies, and also as the embodiment of the soul of man. Speculation on the bee's origin proposed that it was generated from heaven, from the corpse of an ox or lion, from the sun, or from the tears of Christ. Almost every western culture has looked on the hive as a model of the perfect social system. Political theorists and monarchs throughout history have compared their systems of government to that of the beehive. Austin Fife has described the hive's political system: the bee colony has an absolute ruler who is obeyed by all. There is perfect division of labor and a well-organized military system which includes guards at the hive entrance. The bees are remarkably industrious and have a well-planned food storage system. The bee is a genius at architecture. The colony is capable of expansion; new colonies are organized regularly. With these admirable attributes, it is little wonder that the beehive became an emblem of perfect social order to the medieval Catholic church. European monarchs, as weU as Napolean's armies, employed the beehive as |