Bees, goddesses & drum: myths and history

Hi there! Being quiet for awhile but today I want to take the chance to celebrate the World Honey Bee day (that this year was on 16th August) to take a moment to write about my personal experience with these special magic bee-ing! 🐝

Last year I had the chance to attend the beekeeping course with the amazing Meriem Hammal (pic 1) and since then my knowledge was navigating into the myths and the magic around bees. I want to spend more time about these fascinating myths that blowed my mind doing a step back into centuries.

Bees were SACRED in Mediterranean regions because our ancestors understood how powerfully healing was their juicy nectar.. and much more 👇🏼

Pic 1 Beekeeping course in Dubai Feb 2024

🐝 ABOUT GODDESSES

🔸Bees were associated to the MOTHER GODDESS in ancient ANATOLIA and she was often represented with a hive as tiara on her head (pic 2) symbolizing the Queen Bee, she that knows the intimate cycle of death and life, being herself life generator and feeding with her nectar all creatures.

Pic 2 Anatolian Goddess with Tiara (6000 BC)

🔸Later on the priestess of the Goddess CYBELE in Anatolia and also in Ancient GREECE temples (Aphrodite, Artemis..) were called MELISSAE that means bees in Latin and Greek language. There is a sculpture from Ephesus that represents Artemis with multiple breasts and according to some scholars they were bee eggs (pic 3 ~ 1st century BC) (Fact: one of the first coins in the world has a bee symbol and is coming from Ephesos where there were great honey producers. In addition the city was the location of the famous temple of Artemis!) (Pic. 4)

Pic 3 Artemis from Ephesus (1st c. BC)

Pic 4 Coin from Ephesus (390-325 BC)

🔸 In the Bible the Melissae were called DEBORAH (in Hebrew) and is also mentioned about a prophetess called Deborah that had the role of a judge for Israelites people.

🐝 ABOUT THE SOUND (and the DRUM)

🔹The Melissae (descendants of the Paleolithic Great Mother) were often represented playing the drum. We have several statues of Cybele handling a FRAME DRUM (pic 5) but also in Egypt a lot of graffiti depicting HATHOR playing the drum. (pic 6)

Pic 5 Cybele playing the drum (4th c. BC)

Pic 6 Egyptian Goddess Hathor playing the drum

🔹 In INDIA a drum is held by Nataraja, the version of God Shiva creator of the universe, and the root of the word “BHRAMA” (from which derives the purifying yogic practice called Bhramari) is referred to the sound of the absolute and recalls the sound of the bees.

There is indeed a raga called “Raga Bhramarananda” that shows a woman playing the frame drum for a man under a sacred tree surrounded by bees (pic. 7 ~.1750 BC)

Pic 7 Raga Bhramarananda (~ 1750)

🔹 The poet VIRGILIO mentioned a way to attract the swarm to a new hive by playing the cymbals and the drums for the bees…

🐝 So how fascinating is the world behind the bees? And yet let’s talk about their meticulous way of building the hives by creating perfect hexagons as SACRED GEOMETRY that hides in their microcosm the secret of the universe..

Thank you for reading until here and I hope I have led you towards more awareness for these tiny and perfect insects!

🧡 🐝 🧡

(In the picture below I am in the archeological site around the Temple of Poseidon close to Athens!)

Pic 8 Drumming at the Temple of Poseidon (Apr 2024)