Bee Pollen Health

In ancient times, bees and beehives also played a central role in human spirituality. Creation myths, cosmologies, and stories associated with gods and goddesses often include bees as symbols of reverence. Ancient peoples projected the community and continuance of bee colonies onto human societies. And the sweetness of bee honey, for ancient people, represented magic and healing.

Bees were primarily associated with females, particularly goddesses. The Minoan culture of ancient Crete depicted many of its goddesses — the precursors of familiar Greek deities — with bee-like stripes, wings, and antennae. The Minoans raised bees, and beehives and beekeeping figure prominently in engravings depicting the common life of this period. The ancient Egyptians depicted many of their goddesses similarly, and bees figure prominently in Egyptian mythology and place naming. In one myth, the Sun God, Ra, cried tears that became the first honey bees, providing the Egyptians with sweet honey. King Menes, one the earliest of the pharaohs (who ruled about 3,000 BC) and unifier of Upper and Lower Egypt, was known as “The Beekeeper,” and his residence in Lower Egypt was referred to as the “Place of the Bee.”

Dionysus — the Greek god of the harvest and wine (known to the Romans as Bacchus) — was credited with founding the practice of beekeeping. According to myth, swarms of bees, hitherto unknown, clustered around Dionysus, attracted by the noise being made by his satyrs. The god collected the bees and put them in a hollow tree, where they soon began producing honey. Dionysus was also the inspiration behind the “Dionysian Mysteries,” rituals in which participants used intoxicants to shed themselves of inhibitions and social constraints, allowing themselves to return to a natural state. Mead, a wine mixed with honey and beeswax, was a common potion at these “bacchanalia.” The practice persists, in modified forms and not necessarily in deference to Dionysus, to the present day.

Pythia, the “Oracle of Delphi,” was the priestess at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, and was famous for the prophesies that she revealed, inspired by Apollo. From generation to generation, new priestesses were chosen from among a guild of priestesses resident at the temple; each was granted the title “Pythia” in turn. The tradition was established in the eighth century BC and endured for more than a millennium until nearly the fifth century AD, when the Roman Emperor Theodosius I ordered all pagan temples in his empire to cease operations. Tradition holds that oracles were revealed by swarms of bees, and Pythia and lesser priestesses at the temple were referred to as “Delphic Bees.”

The most prominent Greek goddess affiliated with bees is Artemis (known to Romans as Diana), the goddess of nature and the hunt. Artemis oversaw the territory of wild bees. A great temple to Artemis was built at Ephesus and was counted among the Seven Wonders of the World; “Ephesus” has been translated as “place of bees,” and the priestesses at Ephesus were referred to as “Melissae,” or “bees.” Several depictions of Artemis render her with the head of a woman but the body of a bee. The role of bees in pollination was well known to the Greeks, and this suited Artemis’s role as overseer of the harvest and of abundance.

Roman civilization inherited the Greek gods, but not always the finer points of Greek culture. Romans continued to drink honey wine (mead), but in quantities that might today be considered borderline alcoholic. Roman bacchanalia may have resembled modern-day fraternity parties (toga parties?) more than the “return to nature” gatherings favored by the Greeks. As for bees, the Romans were known for catapulting beehives filled with bees onto enemy armies, to the point that bee populations on the Italian peninsula dwindled precariously — a purely manmade instance of colony collapse disorder.

Mayan culture included a bee god called Ah Muzen Cab, a masculine rather than feminine figure. His temple was at Tulum, on the Yucatán Peninsula; he played a role in the Mayan creation myth, and honey — in a psychoactive form — was used in his worship. Present-day Mayan shamans still induce trances and perform healing ceremonies by humming in the manner of bees.

In Europe, the centrality of bees and beekeeping in spiritual tradition is nowhere more evident than in Lithuania, one of the last European cultures to shed pagan practices and adopt Christianity. Bees were considered sacred by early Lithuanians, and could not be bought or sold. When bees swarmed, beekeeping families would often leave their homes and follow the swarms, building new homes wherever the bees decided to establish new hives. This form of kinship was regarded as a special grace or protection that had been bestowed on the family, in the form of a bee-blessing.

The Lithuanian bee goddess is called Austeja, still a common name for Lithuanian girls. The Lithuanian Museum of Ancient Beekeeping, near the town of Stripeikiai in the northeastern part of the country, is a popular highlight. There is a beautiful display of beehives intricately sculpted out of hollow tree trunks; some of these sculpted hives pay homage to traditional Lithuanian gods and goddesses. The importance of bees and beekeeping to Lithuanian culture is recognized throughout Europe; in 2005, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko presented Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus with three beehives filled with bees, which were brought to the museum.

Given the importance of bees to ecosystems and food chains around the world, there’s little wonder that bees played such a central role in pagan mythologies, and in the spiritual lives of ancient peoples. Bees don’t play the same role in monotheistic systems, which tend to give humans, and only humans, a supreme position.