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Bee Imagery in Plutarch

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

E. Kerr Borthwick
E. Kerr Borthwick
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
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Extract

There can be few Greek prose authors who outdo Plutarch in fondness for elaborate similes, and a determination to sustain at length vocabulary appropriate to both objects of comparison within the simile, once it is embarked upon. In the essay Quomodo adulescens (Mor. 32e) he uses a favourite image, in which a young man aspiring to be educated in quality literature is recommended to follow the example of the bee, which extracts material for its honey from the most pungent plants: μν οὖν μλιττα ϕυσικς ν τοῖς δριμνττοις ἄνθεσι κα ταῖς τραχντταις κνθαις ξανενρσκει τ λειτατον μλι κα χρησιμώτατον, οἱ δ παῖδες, ἂν ρθς ντρϕωνται τοῖς ποιμασιν, κα π τν ϕαλονς κα τπους ὑποψας χντων ἕλκειν τι χρσιμον μωσγπως μαθησναι κα ὠϕλιμον. In another such essay (De recta, Mor. 41e–42b) he elaborates this theme at greater length as follows:

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Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , December 1991 , pp. 560 - 562
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1991

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References

1 Cf. also Mor. 79d, 145b, 467c, 765d, for similar language and comparisons. A less elaborate example of the comparison is Isoc. 1.51–2.

2 In addition to ‘drone’ used as a general term of disparagement for the indolent (derived basically from the well-known Hesiodic Erg. 304: cf. Macar. 5.14), the word is particularly applied to flatterers (Sent. Cod. Vat. 6 οκασιν οἱ κλακες κηϕσι, κτλ.) or to the democratic rabble which περ τ βματα προσζον βομβεῖ (Plat. Rep. 564e: cf. schol. Ar. Vesp. 1114 κϕηνες· τοὺς π το βματος λγει ῥτορας. Plut. Mor. 818c identifies them with ο περ Kλωνα). For a comparison with sophists however, cf. perhaps the unusual metaphor σμνος σοϕιστν in Crat. fr. 2 and Socrates' ironic σμνος σοϕας (Plat. Crat. 401e); and I am reminded of the βμβος of Prodicus' voice in the ironical passage in Plat. Prot. 316a. Curiously enough, the Aristophanic Socrates also uses the same striking metaphor θεν σμνος (Nub. 297) to describe the patron-goddesses of νδρσιν ργοῖς (316, schol. τοῖς ϕιλοσϕοις), who πλεστονς βσκονσι σοϕιστς (331).

3 Cf. Plat. Rep. 564e.

4 Note, in another of Plutarch's bee comparisons (Cato Min. 19.2), μλλον ᾤετο δεῖν μλλον ᾤετο δεῖν προσέχειν τοῖς κοινοῖς ἤ τῷ κηρίῳ τν μέλιτταν

5 Though I do not find this verb elsewhere of the ‘sucking’ of the bee, it is of course commonly used of quaffing from a cup, and one might note the comparable ρα ἕλκειν (Philyll. 20, Philem. 119), ρα σπν (Men. fr. 740.7), and πισπν of the bee (Basil, Hexaem. Hom. col. 173.56).

6 Les Images de Plutarque (Paris, 1964).Google Scholar

7 De Audiendo: a text and commentary (New York, 1981).Google Scholar

8 Cf. Callim. H. Ap. 110–11, and F. Williams' notes ad loc.

9 Other passages on purity of the bee include the well-known, Verg. G. 4.197–9, and Porph. Antr. 15–18. It is surprising to find a dissentient voice in Philo, de spec. leg. 1.291 μλιττα ζῷον στιν οὐ καθαρν. For chastity of bees in French and German lore, see Ransome, H. M., The Sacred Bee (London, 1937), pp. 236, 285.Google Scholar

10 Or perhaps ργτις – cf. Georg. Pis. quoted below, ργτιδες in Ar. H.A. 627a12, Lyr. Adesp. 1.12 (Powell, , Coll. Alex. p. 185)Google Scholar, Luc. Hale. 7, Lxx. Pr. 6.8, and Prud. Cath. 3.73 ‘opifex apis’. But for the appropriateness of τεχνῖτις, cf. the probable supplements τεχνιτν σμς (Paean Delph. 14, p. 141 Powell) and σμς ἱερς τεχνιτν (Limenius 20, p. 149 Powell). Tryphiodorus 536 uses the hapax ποικιλοτχνης of the bee.

11 For the bee as geometer see the elaborate passage in Pappus 5.1, pp. 304–8 Hultsch, and Maeterlinck, M., The Life of the Bee, trans. Sutro, A. (London, 1901), pp. 152ff.Google Scholar

12 The Cyrilli Glossarium has artificiosus, ϕιλοτχνης.

13 Sud. s.v. σριγξ quotes the passage with Eὐκλεδον νμος (or -οις) in the second line. For the theme in later times, cf. these lines of the eighteenth-century poet, James, Hurdis: ‘She too (sc. the bee) an artist is, and laughs at man, / who calls on rules the slightly hexagon / with truth to form…’Google Scholar