28o The Honey-Makers 



soft-feathered fern, and flowering thyme, and beneath thee 

 shall be thrown the skins of she-goats, four times more 

 soft than the fleeces of thy lambs. And I will set out 

 eight bowls of milk for Pan, and eight bowls full of the 

 richest honey-combs." 



The Romans are said to have had a special goddess of 

 honey, Mellonia, to whom they made sacrifices. 



Cupid does not, like Kama, bear a bow strung with 

 bees, but we are told that he sometimes dips the golden 

 arrow that incites love in honey, to make the love fortunate, 

 sometimes in gall to make it unfortunate ; and Anacreon 

 has used the bee, not to aid Cupid, but to punish the 

 relentless infant, as appears in the following : — 



" Cupid once upon a bed 

 Of roses laid liis weary head ; 

 Luckless urchin, not to see 

 Within the leaves a slumbering bee I 

 The bee awalced — with anger wild 

 The bee awalced, and stung the child. 

 Loud and piteous are his cries ; 

 To Venus quiclc he runs, he flies! 

 " Oh, mother ! — I am wounded through — 

 I die with pain — in sooth I do ! 

 Stung by some little angry thing, 

 Some serpent on a tiny wing — 

 A bee it was — for once, I know 

 I heard a rustic call it so.'' 

 Thus he spoke, and she the while 

 Heard him with a soothing smile ; 

 Then said, " My infant, if so much 

 Thou feel the little wild-bee's touch, 

 How must the heart, oh, Cupid! be. 

 The hapless heart that 's stung by thee ? " 



In Lang's translation of the " Idyls of Theocritus " we 

 have a similar story thus rendered : — 



" The thievish Love, — a cruel bee once stung him, as 



