It is worthy of remark that several, if not all, of the Greek and Roman authors name the head of a hive not a queen but a king. Plato, in his Politics (Francfort edition, 1602, p. 557A). writes,—
“Νὺν δὲ γε ὃτε οὐκ ἔστι γιγνόμενος, ὡς δὴ φαμὲν, ἔν ταῖς πόλεσι βασιλεὺς, οἱ~υς ἐν σμήνεσιν, εμφυέται, τό,τε σῶμα εὐθὺς καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν διαφέρων,” κ. τ. λ.
“There is not born, as we say, in cities a king such as is naturally produced in hives, decidedly differing both in body and soul.”
Xenophon’s Cyropædia (bk. v. c. 1, § 23) declares of his hero,—
“Βασιλεὺς μὲν γὰρ ἔμοιγε δοκεῖς σὺ φυσεί πεφυκέναι, οὐδὲν ἤττον η ἐν τῳ σμῆνει φυόμενος τῶν μελιττῶν ἡγεμών.”
“Thou seemest to me to have been formed a king by nature, no less than he who in the hive is formed general of the bees.”
In his Georgics Virgil always considers the chief bee to be a king, as iv. 75,—
“Et circa regem atque ipsa ad prætoria densæ
Miscentur, magnisque vocant clamoribus hostem.”[[156]]
“And thick around the king, and before the royal tent