Jere has compiled a number of interesting sources and quotations on bees. Any number of these could be a jumping off point for a storyline:
One thinks of the bees which, in Virgil (Georgics, IV, 220ff), in a passage heavily tinged with Stoicism, are said to possess a particle of divine intelligence and an emanation from the Empyrean. One also remembers Porphyry (The Cavern of the Nymphs, 18) who, according to Numenius (?) Identifies the bees born of the bull - as in the bougonia of Aristaeus (Virgil, Georgics, IV, 554ff) - with souls that have entered the world of creation.
An ancient Greek pastoral deity, the son of Apollo and the nymph Cyrene, but also Uranus is mentioned as his father. Aristaeus was made immortal by Gaia. He is the patron of the hunt, agriculture, cattle, and especially bee-culture. Aristaeus also taught mankind how to cultivate olives.
Near delphi there is an "omphalos" center--a navel of the Earth. Where the priestesses used to be sought as oracle to tell of the future and past. They sat on tri-legged stools near a spot where supposedly vapours rose from the Earth's warm heart. The omphalos is marked by beautifully carved domed artifacts. These are dome-hive shaped and decorated with carvings of Bees.
The Bee was sacred to the early Great Mother Goddess and the Triple Goddess. And when she deigned in later years, she would allow the immortals to feed on nectar and ambrosia.
The creation myth[s] that ground these life paradigms always narrate the life and its continuation--ala seasonal and metempsychosis--as chtonic: i.e. underworld as creative center with bees, snakes, piglets!, and figs as major players.
A story of eastern European origin probably derives from a time when many gods were worshipped, later being altered to conform with the Christian monotheistic concept:
The devil was spying on God when He was creating the birds and insects. God took a bit of mist from the air, spun it in His fingers and called out the name of the new creature, "Bee!" And so the first bee was brought to life. The devil was a bit confused by what he saw and thought that God had called the creature into existence by telling it to "Be!" So when he tried a similar trick, gathering up a bit of clay from the earth and mixing it with his own sweat he told it to "Fly!" Of course, in this way it was not another beautiful bee that was formed but the ugly and pesky fly that, ever since, has plagued humans as much as bees have benefitted them.
(I've altered the "letter" of the story a bit to maintain its spirit. In the original, Hungarian, version the word-play centers on "legy" meaning both "become" and a "fly").
Would you believe that the girdle of the Artemis of Ephesus had bees on it?
See how bees are used in the Saga
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Last modified: Tue Jan 5, 1999