(no subject)
Since I will not be posting while off at Kalamazoo, I feel I should leave something for my loyal readers (all two of you!). So, here, without further ado, are....*gasp*....more bee quotes!
I can't get this setup to accept the proper character encodings, so you all are saved from having to read this one in Classical Greek:
[And as in thatched hives the bees feed the drones whose nature is to do mischief--by day and throughout the day until the sun goes down the bees are busy and lay down the white combs, while the drones stay at home in the covered skeps and reap the toil of others into their own bellies--even so Zeus who thunders on high made women to be an evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil.] Hesiod Theogony 594-602 (Loeb Trans)
Concerning bees' devotion to their king:
praeterea regem non sic Aegyptus et ingens
Lydia nec populi Parthorum aut Medus Hydaspes
observant. rege incolumi mens omnibus una est;
amisso rupere fidem, constructaque mella
diripuere ipsae et cratis solvere favorum.
[Moreover, neither Egypt nor mighty Lydia, nor the Parthian tribes, nor Median Hydaspes, show such homage to their king. While he is safe, all are of one mind; when he is lost, straightaway they break their fealty, and themselves pull down the honey they have reared and tear up their trellised combs.] Vergil Georgics, book IV, 210-214 (Loeb Trans)
The use of bees as portents:
Si examen apium ludis in scaenam caveame venisset, haruspices acciendos ex Etruria putaremus... Atque in apium fortasse examine nos ex Etruscorum scriptis haruspices, ut a servitio caveremus, monerent. Quod igitur ex aliquo disiuncto diversoque monstro significatum caveremus...
Had a swarm of bees come upon the stage or into the auditorium at the games, we should think it necessary to summon soothsayers from Etruria...Indeed, were a swarm of bees actually in question, the soothsayers might perchance warn us, after reference to their Etrurian books, to beware of our slave population. Were this warning manifested to us by some alien and allegorical portent we should take precautions accordingly...] Cicero De Haruspicum Responsis XII.25-6
Another one from Greek, detailing some very strange bee-prophetesses:
[There are certain holy ones, sisters born--three virgins, gifted with wings: their heads are besprinkled with white meal, and they dwell under a ridge of Parnassus. These are teachers of divination apart from me, the art which I practiced while yet a boy following herds, though my father paid no heed to it. From their home they fly now here, now there, feeding on honey-comb and bringing all things to pass. And when they are inspired through eating yellow honey, they are willing to speak truth; but if they be deprived of the gods' sweet food, then they speak falsely, as they swarm in and out together.] Hesiod, Hymn IV, to Hermes
I have lots more for later!
I can't get this setup to accept the proper character encodings, so you all are saved from having to read this one in Classical Greek:
[And as in thatched hives the bees feed the drones whose nature is to do mischief--by day and throughout the day until the sun goes down the bees are busy and lay down the white combs, while the drones stay at home in the covered skeps and reap the toil of others into their own bellies--even so Zeus who thunders on high made women to be an evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil.] Hesiod Theogony 594-602 (Loeb Trans)
Concerning bees' devotion to their king:
praeterea regem non sic Aegyptus et ingens
Lydia nec populi Parthorum aut Medus Hydaspes
observant. rege incolumi mens omnibus una est;
amisso rupere fidem, constructaque mella
diripuere ipsae et cratis solvere favorum.
[Moreover, neither Egypt nor mighty Lydia, nor the Parthian tribes, nor Median Hydaspes, show such homage to their king. While he is safe, all are of one mind; when he is lost, straightaway they break their fealty, and themselves pull down the honey they have reared and tear up their trellised combs.] Vergil Georgics, book IV, 210-214 (Loeb Trans)
The use of bees as portents:
Si examen apium ludis in scaenam caveame venisset, haruspices acciendos ex Etruria putaremus... Atque in apium fortasse examine nos ex Etruscorum scriptis haruspices, ut a servitio caveremus, monerent. Quod igitur ex aliquo disiuncto diversoque monstro significatum caveremus...
Had a swarm of bees come upon the stage or into the auditorium at the games, we should think it necessary to summon soothsayers from Etruria...Indeed, were a swarm of bees actually in question, the soothsayers might perchance warn us, after reference to their Etrurian books, to beware of our slave population. Were this warning manifested to us by some alien and allegorical portent we should take precautions accordingly...] Cicero De Haruspicum Responsis XII.25-6
Another one from Greek, detailing some very strange bee-prophetesses:
[There are certain holy ones, sisters born--three virgins, gifted with wings: their heads are besprinkled with white meal, and they dwell under a ridge of Parnassus. These are teachers of divination apart from me, the art which I practiced while yet a boy following herds, though my father paid no heed to it. From their home they fly now here, now there, feeding on honey-comb and bringing all things to pass. And when they are inspired through eating yellow honey, they are willing to speak truth; but if they be deprived of the gods' sweet food, then they speak falsely, as they swarm in and out together.] Hesiod, Hymn IV, to Hermes
I have lots more for later!