In Greece and Italy 275 



Upon this they settled down into communal life and 

 made honey for him. 



This honey was deservedly popular, and no wonder 

 pleasure-loving Silenus was seduced by it. 



One day he stole into the woods determined to taste it. 

 He found the tree, stood on his donkey, and stretched his 

 short body until he was standing on tiptoe almost within 

 reach of the prize. But the bees flew angrily out and stung 

 him on his bald pate, whereupon he fell backward upon 

 his donkey, which, being a sharer in the stings of course, 

 — as was poor Silenus' frequent experience in similar situa- 

 tions, — kicked him, and in sad plight he was found lying on 

 the ground by the Satyrs whom he called to his assistance, 

 and who as usual made sport of his misfortune. 



Dionysos had good reason to befriend the bees, for, like 

 his father Zeus, he was nourished in infancy on honey. 



Dionysos was the son of Zeus and Semele, and his 

 mother, having insisted upon beholding her husband Zeus 

 in all his glory, was punished for her folly by dying at sight 

 of the thunderer's brilliancy. The babe was saved from 

 the fierce glow by Hermes and afterwards given by Zeus to 

 the care of Makris, or, as some call her, Brisa, the daughter 

 of Aristseus, to which story Apollonius Rhodius thus refers 

 in " Medea's Wedding " : — 



" At once they mixed a bowl for the blessed gods, as was 

 right, and dragged sheep to the altar with pious hands, and 

 made ready that very night for the maiden her bridal bed 

 in the holy cave, where Makris once did dwell, the daughter 

 of Aristffius, the bee-keeper, who discovered the use of 

 honey and the fatness of the olive, prize of toil. She it 

 was, that at the first took to her breast the Nysean son of 

 Zeus in Eubcea, home of the Abantes, and with honey 

 she moistened his parched lips when Hermes brought him 

 from out the fire." 



