As the honey of Attica constantly, in antiquity, enjoyed the reputation of being the finest in the world,[[1194]] the management of bees naturally formed in that country an important branch of rural economy. The natural history, moreover, of the bee was studied with singlar enthusiam by the Greeks in general. Aristomachos of Soli, devoted to it fifty-eight years, and Philiscos, the Thasian, who passed his life among bees in a desert, obtained on that account the name of the Wild Man. Both wrote on the subject.[[1195]]
This branch of rural economy was carried to very great perfection in Attica. The vocabulary[[1196]] connected with it was extensive, as every separate operation had its technical term, by the study of which, chiefly, an insight into their practice is obtained. Thus, from certain expressions employed by Aristotle[[1197]] and Pollux, it seems clear that bee-managers, whom we may occasionally call melitturgi, constituted a separate division among the industrious classes; and these, instructed by constant experience, probably anticipated most of the improvements imagined in modern times. For example, instead of destroying the valuable and industrious little insects for the purpose of obtaining possession of their spoils, they in some cases compelled them by smoke to retire temporarily from the hive, whence their treasures were to be taken; and in the mining districts about Laureion they understood the art, concerning which, however, no particulars are known, of procuring the virgin honey pure and unsmoked.[[1198]]
The grounds of a melitturgos or bee-keeper were chosen and laid out with peculiar care.[[1199]] In a sheltered spot, generally on the thymy slope of a hill, the hives were arranged in the midst of flowers and odoriferous shrubs. And if the necessary kinds had not by nature been scattered there, they were planted by the gardener. Experience soon taught them what blossoms and flowers yielded the best honey,[[1200]] and were most agreeable to the bees. These, in Attica, were supposed to be the wild pear-tree, the bean, clover, a pale-coloured vetch, the syria, myrtle, wild poppy, wild thyme, and the almond-tree.[[1201]] To which may be added the rose, balm gentle, the galingale or odoriferous rush, basil royal, and above all the cytisus,[[1202]] which begins to flower about the vernal equinox, and continues in bloom to the end of September.[[1203]] Of all the plants, however, affected by the bee, none is so grateful to it as the thyme, which so extensively abounds in Attica and Messenia[[1204]] as to perfume the whole atmosphere. In Sicily too, all the slopes and crests of its beautiful hills, from Palermo to Syracuse, are invested with a mantle of thyme,[[1205]] and other odoriferous shrubs, which, according to Varro, gives the superior flavour to the Sicilian honey. Box-wood abounded on mount Cytoros, in Galatia, and in the island of Corsica, on which account the honey of the latter country was bitter.[[1206]]
In selecting a spot for hives, the ancients observed a rule which I do not recollect to have been mentioned by modern bee-keepers, and that was to avoid the neighbourhood of an echo,[[1207]] which by repeating their own buzzing and murmuring suggested the idea perhaps of invisible rivals. Place them not, says Virgil,[[1208]]
Near hollow rocks that render back the sound,
And doubled images of voice rebound.
Care was taken to conduct near the hives small runnels of the purest water, not exceeding two or three inches in depth with shells or pebbles rising dry above the surface, whereon the bees might alight to drink.[[1209]] When of necessity the apiary was situated on the margin of lakes or larger streams other contrivances were had recourse to for the convenience of the airy labourers.
Then o’er the running stream or standing lake
A passage for thy weary people make,
With osier floats the standing water strow,