ON BEES - VIRGIL

CAMBRIDGE BEE

Come now and I’ll impart the qualities Jupiter himself

gave bees, for which reward they followed after

the melodious sounds and clashing bronze of the Curetes,

and fed Heaven’s king in the Dictean cave.

They alone hold children in common: own the roofs

of their city as one: and pass their life under the might of the law.

They alone know a country, and a settled home,

and in summer, remembering the winter to come,

undergo labour, storing their gains for all.

For some supervise the gathering of food, and work

in the fields to an agreed rule: some, walled in their homes,

lay the first foundations of the comb, with drops of gum

taken from narcissi, and sticky glue from tree-bark,

then hang the clinging wax: others lead the mature young,

their nation’s hope, others pack purest honey together,

and swell the cells with liquid nectar: