Berkeley Undergraduate Journal of Classics

This paper seeks to explore the space that bees occupy within Greek religious practice. By exploring the appearance of bees within the visual and literary culture of Greek religion, I have tried to shine a little light onto a relatively untouched area of Greek religious culture.

Previous scholarship has taken the approach of a prosopography, referencing the appearance of bees without much analysis of their role or semiotics in Greek religious rites.

Instead, I have tried to present apian imagery and culture as a divine intermediary, able to confer divine gifts onto humankind. I have taken inspiration from some of my interests, including literature, philosophy, myth, and drama to paint a picture of the role of bees as messengers of prophecy and poetry.

I have concluded that bees operate as intermediaries of the divine, with the ability to transgress both the divine, the mortal, and the chthonic plane. They are akin to daimons, and platonic souls and offer us many new interpretations of Greek religious practice.