DISCOVERY 



231 



protruding- rock, and mixed with prostrate or tufted 

 shrubs of the heath vegetation, large cushions of grey 

 Lichens that when dry crumble to the touch, the flat 

 deeply lobed surfaces of a bright yellow species, and 

 the clumps of erect branches of stouter forms some- 

 times tipped with small scarlet balls, give light and 

 brightness to the duller background. 



The vegetation of Greenland is intensely interesting 

 to the botanist, not only because of the richness of the 

 flora, but from the point of view of its past history, 

 the relation of the vegetation of to-day to that which 

 preceded the Glacial period, and the routes by which 

 the pioneers of the present plant population arrived. 

 There is a certain emotional influence produced by 

 the heath-covered hill sides and swampy lowlands, 

 by the scattered colonies of more brilliant flowers on 

 the drier rock-strewn regions of this treeless land for 

 the perception of which no knowledge of Natural 

 Science is needed, and even the layman's sense of 

 wonder is stirred when he considers what this display 

 signifies as a triumph of the forces of life over adverse 

 physical conditions. 



Note. — For a more technical and more complete 

 account of the vegetation of West Greenland, and 

 for references to literature, see R. E. Holttum, Tlic 

 Journal of Ecology, Vol. X., No. i. May, 1922. 



Honey that Drove 

 Men Mad 



By W. R. Halliday, B.A., B.Litt. 



Professor of Ancient History in the University of Liverpool 



In the Near East honey is still used as the chief 

 constituent of most of the somewhat cloying sweet- 

 meats which are dear to Turkish palates. In the 

 ancient world it was not merely a luxury but a 

 necessity, filling, as it did, the place of sugar in 

 modern life. It was consequently an important 

 article of commerce and bee-farming was a serious 

 branch of profitable husbandry. That is the reason 

 why Vergil, for instance, devoted one of his four 

 Georgics to bees. His choice was not merely due to 

 the desire to draw- the moral of the analogy between 

 human society and that of the hive, which has been 

 a popular topic with poets and preachers in all ages. 

 In Illyria mead was manufactured from honey. 

 But like beer, which was also known to the Greeks 

 and Romans,' mead never became popular in the 



' The attitude of Greeks and Romans towards beer finds 

 its expression in the well-known epigram of Julian the Apostate. 

 "Who and whence art thou, Dionysus? For, by the true 

 Bacchus, I know thee not ; I know only the son of Zeus. He 

 smells of nectar, but thou of billy-goat. Did the Celts for 

 lack of grapes make thee out of corn ? " Anth. Pal. VI., 

 368 in The Greek Anthology translated by W. R. Paton (Loeb 

 Classical Library) III., p. 201. 



essentially wine-drinking countries of the Medi- 

 terranean, though honey was used for softening and 

 sweetening wine. In mythology (I do not know of 

 an historical instance) there is an example of smear- 

 ing a criminal with honey and exposing him to the 

 consequent torture of flies ; and the ancient (ireek 

 analogue to The Mistletoe Bough tells how Glaucus, 

 the son of the King of Crete, when chasing a mouse 

 fell into a large jar of honey and was lost. He was, 

 however, more fortunate than the bride in the English 

 song, for when he disappeared there happened to be at 

 hand a famous "wise man" from overseas, Polyidos 

 of Argos. He was called in, discovered the boy's 

 fate, and was then informed that he must take steps 

 to restore him to life, and that he would be shut up 

 in the tomb with the dead body until he was success- 

 ful. While thus immured Polyidos killed a snake, 

 whereupon its consort brought a leaf of a herb in its 

 mouth, laid it on the wound and restored it to life. 

 The seer watched this proceeding with interest, pro- 

 cured a leaf of the magic herb, and brought the boy 

 to life again. The king, however, was not yet 

 satisfied and refused to let the prophet leave his 

 dominions until he had taught Glaucus his magical 

 lore. This Polyidos was obliged to do, but, as at 

 length he left the shore of Crete, he bade his pupil 

 spit into his mouth. Glaucus did so, and the magical 

 knowledge which he had acquired left him and 

 returned to its imparter.' 



It has been thought that the story of Glaucus falling 

 into the honey-pot may have some connection wdth 

 early burial custom. Both Babylonians and Persians 

 used beeswax as a preservative for corpses." It may 

 have been from the East that the Greeks learned this 

 use of it. Special importance was attached at Sparta 

 to the funeral rites of their kings, and if the body of 

 a king for any reason could not be brought to Sparta, 

 the rites were carried out with an effigy of the corpse. 

 At least, in one historical instance, that of Agesilaus, 

 in the middle of the fourth century B.C., the body of 

 a king who died abroad was embalmed in beeswax 

 and so brought home for burial. 



From the earliest times honey, milk and wine 

 formed the triple offering to the dead, and although 

 the worship of "heroes" (i.e., the spirits of dead men 

 of legendary or historical importance), seems to have 

 become a prominent feature of Greek religion only in 

 post-Homeric times, the author of the eleventh book 



• The story is made up of folktale elements. There are 

 classical variants of the snakes and the healing herb, e.g., 

 the story of Tylo, Pliny, Natural History, XXV., 5 and the tal& 

 told of .\lexander the Great and Ptolemy, Cicero, de div., II., 

 66, 13. References to variants will be found in Bolte and 

 Polivka, Anmerkungen zu den Kinder imd Hausmdrchen der 

 Brfider Grimm (Leipzig, 1913), I., pp. 128-129. For the wayin 

 which Polyidos deprived Glaucus of the magical knowledge 

 which he had acquired see ibid. p. 133. 



'-' Herodotus, I., 140 and 198. 



