Bees

[larkvi]

I am currently researching a paper about bees, and have acquired a reputation as something of a bee-man, at least temporarily. The medieval and classical associations with bees are both interesting and varied, and I thought I might post a few, since owlfish has listed on her page that I "Sometimes" speak of Medieval topics in my journal, and I thus feel

Comments

[fitek]

This bible thing reads like a smut novel. There is no art to it; merely sordid tales and gratuitous bloodshed. It should be labeled as pornography.

That said, does it say anywhere how to apply the honey for maximum effect? I only have a copy of the New Testament and Jesus doesn't ever do anything but evangelize to the prostitutes and loose women. Jesus, man, with your charisma, you don't need to tell them about God! Let them find your God in the sack!

[owlfish]

This is really interesting material.

You actually more than fulfilled the sometimes material already because I include meta-posting on medieval studies as well as actual medieval content. You had enough more than enough posts on the Latin scrabble tournament to justify the sometimes. (Post on medieval things too often and you'll be a "Frequently" instead!) Although I don't say this anywhere at the moment "Rarely" is synonymous with never, or almost never. It's for people who self-identify as medievalists online, but don't seem to be posting anything about it.

[anonymous]

Interesting set of facts. The part about the origins of bees, of course, is also in Virgil's Georgics Book 4. The poem as a whole is concerned with beekeeping, and has lovely things like the "war of the bees" and invective against the lazy drones. But the end of it tells the story of how Aristaeus needed new bees because the nymphs killed all of his, so he's given detailed instructions about how to beat a calf to death without breaking the skin, leave it for some days, and then return, and he finds a new swarm of bees born from the rotting flesh -- Virgil cites this as the origin of the technique (known as the 'bugonia'). I'm sure this text was well known to Medieval writers, like all of Virgil.

[larkvi]

They are very much aware of Vergil, and I get Classical allusions all the time, though they prefer to quote him indirectly through a patristic souce--cleaned up for Christian consumption and all.

[anonymous]

Damn. I meant to sign my name to that -- I"m not a LJ user, so it made me be "Anonymous".

Aven

http://cast.off.net

[piratehead]

Hey- this sounds great! I love bees!
Perhaps you should check the Georgics of Vergil. Somewhere in this lengthy didactic cycle of poems on agriculture, Vergil discourses at length on bees. This may be a source of the recurring political symbolism of bees and the beehive (which I did not know hitherto is found in Aristotle-- thanks!) which finds its apitical apex in Louis XIV's absolutist political philosophy.

Also, I think you'd enjoy the bit by Eddie Izzard on beekeepers, rentable at suspect video.