Honeybee

The Honeybee in Ancient Egypt


 * Egyptian Name:**

//Bit//

The Egyptian hieroglyphic of the Honey Bee, quite fittingly, shows the large abdomen of a queen bee. Bee-keeping is depicted in Egyptian temple reliefs as early as the 5th Dynasty, and the ancient Egyptians were the first known people to keep bees. Bees were kept in woven wicker hives that had been covered in clay. The Egyptians practiced migratory beekeeping - because the flowering season in Upper Egypt arrives earlier than in Lower Egypt, beekeepers moved their hives by raft down the Nile, pollinating various crops. Wild honey was also gathered by professional collectors, known as //bityw//. Bees were admired for their industriousness, as seen in the Egyptian proverb "The little bee brings much honey."

The Egyptians kept bees for their honey and wax. The bees were rendered inactive by smoke from lamps, then the honey was gathered. After extracting the honey from the combs, it was strained and poured into earthen jars which were then sealed. Honey treated in this manner could be kept for years. Honey was the principal sweetener of ancient Egypt (sugar was unknown in antiquity) and was used in cakes, beer, and wine. Honey was labeled by color and quality - //stf// (light colored), //dsrt// (red), //pw-g// (used for offerings), and //mh-tt// (for cakes.)

Honey was also used in cosmetics. Because of its value, taxes were sometimes paid in honey. Beeswax was used for barque building, candles, metal casting, coating the inside of wine jars, plaiting wigs, covering writing tablets and paintings, as a binding agent in some paints, and as an adhesive. A magical spell reminded people that honey "is sweet for the living and bitter for the dead" - honey and wax were sometimes used in mummification. Beeswax figures were used in spells. One tale describes a man who made a wax crocodile and put it into the water where his wife's lover was bathing. The crocodile came to life and dragged the man down into the deep. The names of enemies or malicious spirits were written on beewax figures and then destroyed.

According to one Egyptian myth, bees were the tears of the sun-god Ra, creatures made of water and sunlight. Bees were also associated with the goddesses Nut and Neith, whose temple in the town of Sais was known as //Per-bit// ("House of the Bee.") Honey was considered pleasing to various deities, such as Min and Ma'at. Thutmose III's offerings to Amun included four vessels of honey. Ramses III included honey in practically every one of his offerings to the temples. Honey cakes were often depicted in tombs and scribes recorded large quantities of honey cake used as offerings to the gods and the dead, which shows how much it was valued. Honey was thought of as the “taste of Ma'at,” or of truth itself. At Ma'at's festivals, worshipers were said to eat honey and eggs and say to each other, “How sweet a thing is truth!” (Eggs represented eternal life.)

Honey was used as a base for medical ointments (honey has an antibacterial effect.) Almost all Egyptian medicines contained honey, wine, or milk. When honey is mixed with bodily fluids, it produces hydrogen peroxide, which inhibits the growth of bacteria. For similar reason honey was - and still is - used for gut problems, and even for tooth decay. The ancient Egyptians would pack a mixture of herbs and honey in the mouth to fight infection. The modern mind might scoff at such an idea, but it was, and is, a perfectly good remedy, and is starting to be used again today in "natural" medicine.

Honey was regarded as a symbol of resurrection, and was buried with the dead. Two small pottery flasks containing honey were found in the tomb of Tutankhamen. Golden amulets of bees were sometimes buried with the dead. In some ritual hymns, the deceased is changed into a bee - "Going about as a bee, thou seest all the goings of thy father." Honey was awarded from the royal stores for those who has pleased the pharaoh - Ineni, a favorite of Thutmose II, boasted that he had received honey from the royal table. Honey was a common tribute item from Palestine and Syria. One of the titles of the pharaoh was //Nisw Byty// ("He of the Sedge and the Bee,") representing the union of Upper and Lower Egypt. The Agricultural Museum in Dokki has an ancient feast honey cake shaped into the form of a human, with a head and arms, possibly, suggests Dr. Crane, an early form of a gingerbread man.

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