Honeybee_ Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper - C. Marina Marchese [34]
Nevertheless, the effects of mad honey have been reported in Western literature as early as 401 BC, when Greek general Xenophon, a follower of Socrates, led 10,000 Greek soldiers into battle. Setting up camp in an area named Colchis in Persia, they landed upon wild bees and proceeded to eat the honey inside the hives. General Xenophon described the effects of toxic honey in his history Anabasis Book viii 18–23: “All the soldiers who ate of the honeycombs lost their senses, and were seized with vomiting and purging, none of them being able to stand on their legs. Those who ate but a little were like men very drunk, and those who ate much, like madmen and some like dying persons. In this condition great numbers lay on the ground, as if there had been a defeat, and the sorrow was general. The next day none of them died, but recovered their senses about the same hour they were seized. And the third day they got up as if they had taken a strong potion.”
Mad honey was used as a weapon in 67 BC, when Roman general Pompey led an invasion to conquer King Mithridates of Pontus in the Trebizon region of the Black Sea. The Roman army had forced Mithridates’s men to retreat. But Mithridates’s men then left out jars of rhododendron honey as a peace offering to the Roman army. When the Romans feasted on it, they fell into intoxicated fits, and Mithridates’s army was then able to defeat them. This incident is the first recorded use of honey as a weapon.
HONEYBEES IN RELIGION
• The word honey appears fifty-six times in the King James version of the Bible.
• The bee and the hive have long been symbols of industry and regeneration, wisdom and obedience, and have places in Egyptian, Roman, and Christian symbolism. The hive is often seen in Masonic illustrations of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
• Throughout history, abbeys and monasteries were centers of beekeeping, because beeswax was prized for candles used in churches.
• Saint Ambrose, bishop of Milan from 374 to 397, is the patron saint of beekeepers, and statues made in his honor always include a beehive. It is said that when he was a baby, a swarm of honeybees settled upon his face. The bees left without stinging him, but they did leave behind a drop of honey. His father believed this incident was a sign that his son was destined to be a sweet-tongued preacher.
• The prophet Mohammed is quoted as saying, “Honey is a remedy for every illness, and the Qur’an is a remedy for all illnesses of the mind. Therefore I recommend to you both remedies, the Qur’an and honey.”
• During Rosh Hashanah, it is traditional to eat apples dipped in honey to symbolize the hope for a “sweet” new year. The apple is dipped in honey, the blessing for eating tree fruits is recited, the apple is tasted, and then the apples and honey prayer is recited.
BEES IN CURRENCY
• In ancient Rome, honey was highly valued and considered somewhat of a luxury good, reserved for only emperors and the wealthy. This natural sweetener was so valuable that it was common for the Romans, like the Egyptians and the Aztecs of Central America, to pay their taxes in honey.
• The familiar icons of the honeybees and the skep have appeared on coins and postage stamps as far back as the sixth century. Maybe this is why honey is frequently referred to as liquid gold!
CHAPTER 8
From Hive to Home: Making and Harvesting Honey
The honey-making process inside the hive is a perfectly orchestrated symphony of events. And it is because honeybees hoard their honey and other resources that beekeepers are rewarded with excess honey.
The worker bee begins foraging for nectar in the first three to four weeks of her life. She gathers up nectar by visiting flowers within two to three