The Bee Simile - Göttinger Forum für Altertumswissenschaft

150 Wolfgang Polleichtner
IV Vergil, the Bee, and Contemporary Interests
Besides these obvious allusions to the epic poems of Homer and Apollonius
there are various reasons why the bee was indeed a very useful subject for the
kind of similes Vergil used it for. The Aristaeus episode in the fourth book of
the Georgics that is about the loss and the regaining of beehives has been seen
as an attempt to parallel the Augustan renewal of the Roman people after the
long period of civil wars. This passage which, as I have said, underlies the first
book of the Aeneid has also been seen as a direct allegory of Cleopatra, Marc
Antony, Octavian, and Actium. 228 There are two observations which can make
this view even a little bit more probable.
The bee is the hieroglyph for “King” or “Queen of lower Egypt”. 229 Even if
there seems to be no known inscription connecting Cleopatra VII directly with
that title, it is tempting to think that Vergil knew about it.
In addition, the noise of the souls in the underworld that is compared to the
sound bees make in Aeneid 6.707-712 recalls a passage from Egyptian literature.
When the sun god goes through the underworld at night, the talking and
movement of the people down there is also likened to the noise of bees. 230
Since we saw that this second bee simile has no immediate Homeric or Apollonian
predecessor, maybe Vergil got the idea for this simile from Egypt. The
connection of the bee with Egypt would be an additional way to explain why
Vergil gave much more prominence to the bees in his work than other epic
poets did. Of course we have also to note Sophocles fr. 794 N and 69 N. Fr. 69
N, in which we are informed that in earlier times souls about to be born again
were called bees. Souls in the underworld are compared with bees in these
fragments. Norden has suggested that Sophocles’ source was Vergil’s source
as well and came from Orphic or Pythagorean contexts. 231 Furthermore, the
bee and honey have a prominent place in the realm of burial in antiquity. 232
There seems to be even more to this Vergilian simile than we can see from our
limited knowledge of ancient literature today.
228 Cf. D. Nelis (1992) 3f. and 15-18. According to this view, Aeneas is modeled on Aristaeus.
229 Cf. A. Gardiner (1988) 477: L2. For beekeeping in ancient Egypt in general also see E.
Crane (1999) 161-171.
230 Amduat, 8 th hour, upper register, first cave: see E. Hornung (1984) 141; cf. F. Hoffmann
(1994) 9.
231 Cf. E. Norden (1927) 306.
232 Cf. E. Norden (1927) 306f.