Life, Death, and Allegory: Honeybees in Vergilian Poetry

Abstract

Honeybees play a varied and important role in the works of the Roman poet Vergil. They are featured in epic similes, natural histories, and treatises on apiculture, as well as mythological origin stories. This paper will provide a detailed examination of bees in Vergil’s work, largely referring to the specific passages from the Georgics and Aeneid, with a particular focus on the phenomenon of bugonia , and its place in Vergil’s allegorical landscape. As whole, bees are heavily anthropomorphized in Vergil’s work, with bugonia representing a miraculous revival after societal destruction. Since it is well-represented in the Georgics, bugonia may have been of particular interest to Vergil, who was subjected to societal upheaval in his formative years.