Honey – The Five Best in The World

Honey has been around a pretty long time, around as long as there have been bees which is older than recorded history; in 2100 BC it was mentioned in Sumerian and Babylonian cuneiform writings; it was mentioned in the Hittite Code and also in the sacred writings of India and Egypt. Long before that, cave paintings in Spain (dating back to 7000 BC) show some of the earliest records of beekeeping. We also know that the Mayans used honey and that the Persians used it to sweeten all their food until sugar was brought back from the Polynesian islands.

Medicinal uses of ancient Egyptian beekeeping (Video)

According to Egyptian mythology, when the ancient Egyptian sun god Re cried, his tears turned into honey bees upon touching the ground. For this reason, the honey bee was sacrosanct in ancient Egyptian culture. From the art depicting bees on temple walls to the usage of beeswax as a healing ointment, the honey bee was a pervasive cultural motif in ancient Egypt because of its connection to the sun god Re.

6 Things You Didn’t Know About Bees in Greece

The 300-plus days of sunshine, varied landscape and 7,400 varieties of plants make Greece a fertile place for honeybees. With such immediate concern for honeybees in many parts of the world, colony collapse disorder is still being called into question in Greece.
“Colony collapse disorder is a problem in the United States and some European countries like Germany and Spain… We don’t have this problem in Greece yet,” claims Paschalis Harizanis, professor at the Agricultural University of Athens.

Bee (mythology)

The bee, found in Ancient Near East and Aegean cultures, was believed to be the sacred insect that bridged the natural world to the underworld.  Motifs of a bee god, Ah-Muzen-Cab, are seen in Maya civilization.
The bee was an emblem of Potnia, the Minoan-Mycenaean "Mistress", also referred to as "The Pure Mother Bee". Her priestesses received the name of "Melissa" ("bee").

Bees in Greek Mythology

Amphora - Archaic Greek. ca. 550 BCE. Vulci, Italy.
Amphora is a Storage Vessel for Wine, Corn, Oil or Honey.