In Greece and Italy 269 



"Above all, venerate the gods; and renew to great 

 Ceres the sacred annual rites, offering up thy sacrifices 

 upon the joyous turf, at the expiration of the last days of 

 winter, when the spring is serene. . . . For thee let all the 

 rural youths adore Ceres ; to whom mix thou the honey- 

 comb with milk and gentle wine." 



This libation of honey, milk, and wine was poured upon 

 the sacrifice, the victim having first been led around the 

 fields. 



The worship of Ceres in one form or another was very 

 wide-spread. 



We are told that once her priestess Melissa, because she 

 would not reveal the secrets she had been set to guard, 

 was torn to pieces by the other women, but that Ceres 

 caused bees to issue from her body ; the coming forth of 

 bees from a dead body being a common expression of the 

 immortality of the soul in the early ages. 



The bee was sacred to the Greek Artemis, known in 

 Italy as Diana, and who also was symbolical of the creative 

 power, presiding over births, and receiving offerings of 

 honey. Diana was the goddess of the moon as well, and 

 Porphyry tells us : — 



" The moon, likewise, who presides over generation, was 

 called by the ancients a bee." 



The souls of the dead were supposed to come down from 

 the moon upon the earth in the forms of bees, reminding 

 us of the ancient Hindu faith concerning honey, the bee, 

 and the moon. 



The transmigration of the souls of the deserving into the 

 bodies of bees was a Greek, as well as a Hindu myth, the 

 origin of which Porphyry perhaps explains in his " Cave of 

 the Nymphs," where he tells us : — 



" All souls, however, proceeding into generation, are not 

 simply called bees, but those who will live in it justly, and 



