Muse, asks Virgil, what deity has taught us this art? 
(v. 315). And now begins the second part of the episode, the 
long story how Aristaeus learned the secret (v. 316—547). — 
It is unnecessary to repeat it here, as I have given it in a few 
words before (p. 20). 
The third part is quite short; Aristaeus follows the advice 
he had received, builds the required altars (v. 549), immolates 
eight oxen, and after nine days, returns to the place and wit- 
nesses the performance of the miracle: the softened entrails of 
the oxen teem with bees, who rush through the broken ribs 
(v. 555—556), get upon the trees, and hang on to the branches 
(v. 557—58). . 
In one point Virgil is mistaken and must have misunder- 
stood his informer:. the nine days required for the process; 
Florentinus says thirty-two days, which, as I am going to show, 
is the time necessary for the development of Hristalis from the 
evo to the imago. Nine days are just sufficient for the pupa 
state only. 
Redi (p. 58) notices a contradiction between verses 296—298 
of Virgil, where shed, roof, four windows etc., are mentioned, 
and verses 5388—5438, where such a mention is omitted. But 
this omission, does not, it seems to me, involve a contradiction. 
In the first passage Virgil is merely didactic, and explains the 
detail of the process to the reader; it was therefore not ne- 
cessary for him to repeat these details in the socond passage, 
in which he closes the episode of Aristaeus with a poetic per- 
oration. Aldrovandi (p.59) notices the close resemblance of 
the accounts of Virgil and Florentinus, and, after reproducing 
the latter, almost im extenso, observes ,that nearly all this is 
contained in the verses of the prince of latin poets, Virgil‘ 
(quae fere omnia his versibus complexus est poetarum princeps 
Latinorum Virgilius), and then introduces the corresponding 
passage of the Georgics, IV, v. 231—3814. 
The time allotted by Florentinus for the whole operation 
(thirty-two days; twenty-one with the doors shut, eleven with 
the doors open) agrees quite well with the time required for 
