Honey - Greece

Honey - Greece


The solemn and prominent part honey played in the history of Greece is conclusively proven by its mythology. Ambrosia, the food, and nectar, the drink of the gods, were made of honey. The Iliad (XI. 630) refers to honey as the food of kings. The honey of Mt. Hymettus was a daily food of Athens. This mountain was covered with odoriferous wild flowers, principally thyme, and the air was scented with the fragrance of the blooms. The bees were partial to these hills. (It is singular that the population of ancient Greece, a maritime country par excellence, as fond as they were of honey, utterly neglected sea-food. Homer in the Iliad never mentions fish; in the Odyssey, Menelaus complains that he and his men were so hungry that they were compelled to eat fish.)

Ancient Attica, with its area of forty square miles, recorded twenty thousand hives during the time of Pericles (429 B.C.). All ancient Greek authors praised the medicinal and nutrimental value of Attic honey, "the crowning dish of all feasts." The oldest ruins in the rural districts of Greece are buildings which originally housed the hives. These stone edifices were built high, to outwit the cunning of the bears, arch enemies of bees and bosom friends of honey.