Honey - Egypt

Honey - Egypt


The most fertile field, in our historical research, for establishing the singular and paramount rôle which honey played in the social, economic and spiritual life of ancient nations is, unquestionably, Egypt, the land of Pharaohs. The oldest hieroglyphic carvings in temples, on sarcophagi and obelisks sufficiently prove that bees and honey had a vital significance in the daily life of the population of Egypt. These monuments symbolically perpetuate bees and their principal product, honey. On the Flamic and Pamphilic obelisks (Amada), on the famous Rosetta stone, on the pillars of the Temple of Karnak and on the obelisk of Luxor (which was erected in 1836 on the Place de la Concorde, Paris), we find many images of bees. On the colossal sarcophagus of Rameses III (20th Dynasty) in the Musée Louvre, on the sarcophagus of a priest who died during the reign of Psametic I (26th Dynasty) and on a granite statue of Rameses II, there are numerous such designs. King Menes, the founder of the First Dynasty of Egyptian Kings, the date of whose rule is variously given as 4000 to 5000 B.C. (according to Brugsch, 4445 B.C.), was called "the Beekeeper." Tony Kellen found some writing on one of the Louvre papyri which suggested that it had been a restaurant check and honey was among the food consumed.

Next to hieroglyphic representations, the wall paintings of the royal tombs demonstrate the great national importance of honey. There are only a few funeral vaults in which bees and honey are not represented pictorially. Honeycombs, honey cakes, sealed jars of honey and lotus blooms were placed next to the sarcophagi as food for the souls of the dead. (Plate II.) In the tomb of Pa-Ba-Sa, in Thebes, the entire wall is decorated by rows of bees. A man is shown pouring honey into a pail, another is kneeling and praying before a pyramid of honeycombs. (Plate III.) On the wall of the tomb of Rekh-Mi-Re all phases of the honey industry are depicted; how the combs were removed from the hives with the aid of smoke, the baking of honey cakes, the filling and sealing of jars, etc. (Plate IV.)

From a literary aspect there is little left in Egypt so far as the subject is concerned. During the conflagration of 312 B.C., the great library of Alexandria was totally destroyed and all its treasures and documents were lost. It is remarkable that one of their seers predicted this catastrophe when he said: "Oh Egypt ... only unbelievable legends will remain for later generations .. engraved on stones, monuments, obelisks and pyramids."

The Egyptian Papyri, representing the oldest civilization of the world, often refer to honey, especially to its medicinal value. Almost all Egyptian medicines contained honey, wine and milk. Honey sacrifices were offered to the deities. The frequent symbolical use of bees in Egypt must be attributed not only to the fact that honey was an important article of commerce and a valuable food and medicinal substance but to the admiration of the Egyptians for the diligence, industry, order, economy, endurance, intelligence and courage of the bees and their loyalty to a sovereign. The bees are the only creatures which are entirely subjugated to a ruler. Next to the signatures of Egyptian kings there was a figure of a bee. Apiculture was far advanced in Egypt, like-wise in Babylonia and in Assyria.

The ancient Egyptians were habitual beer drinkers. The land was ill-suited to the cultivation of the grape-vine. Xenophon (400 B.C.) mentions an Egyptian beverage made of wheat, barley and honey. On the decline of the Egyptians and the rise of the Greeks and Romans, wine made of grapes became a drink of civilization.