Religious Musings.
See his picture of the first night of marriage:—
“Tacitè subit ille supremus
Virginitatis amor, primæque modestia culpæ
Confundit vultus. Tunc ora rigantur honestis
Imbribus.”
Thebaidos, lib. ii. 232-34.
Bees (which Virgil said had in them something of the divine nature) were supposed by the ancients to be the special emblems or models of chastity. It was a common belief that the bee mother begot her young without losing her virginity. Thus in a fragment ascribed to Petronius we read,
“Sic sine concubitu textis apis excita ceris
Fervet, et audaci milite castra replet.”
Petron. De Varia Animalium Generatione.
So too Virgil:—
“Quod neque concubitu indulgent nec corpora segnes
In Venerem solvunt aut fœtus nixibus edunt.”—Georg. iv. 198-99.
Plutarch says that an unchaste person cannot approach bees, for they immediately attack him and cover him with stings. Fire was also regarded as a type of virginity. Thus Ovid, speaking of the vestals, says:—