THE PERFECT KING BEE VISIONS OF KINGSHIP IN CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY

This article investigates the portrayal of the king bee by Greek and Roman writers. Their depiction of these creatures was not a scientific one: many aspects of their description were influenced by widespread Greek and Roman ideas on government, while others show even more specific influences from contemporary thinking. At the same time, the hive was used as a model for human society, since bees presented a society that succeeded in living together without stasis (civil strife), in harmony. Nam ut a minimis ordiamur, apes, quae natura duce coetum et societatem colunt mirumque inter se ordinem servant, uni regi obtemperant, quem non ipsae de turba temere delegerunt, sed ab ipsa natura insignem forma et diademate praeditum acceperunt.1 To begin with the smallest things, the bees, which at nature’s command practice common life and society and observe a marvelous order among themselves, obey a single king, whom they do not choose rashly from the mob; they take from Nature herself one who is remarkable in form and supplied with a diadem (trans. J Hankins). 1. Bees and metaphors In the eyes of a modern spectator, a beehive probably appears as the place of much nervous activity by many interchangeable creatures, an impression which we can link to our own hectic existence. Yet for a long time these creatures were connected to the divine, unlike ants who were more often judged in negative terms. Only with Milton’s Paradise lost did bees become fallen angels, earthly and without will. As such, they could no longer serve as an example to human society. Yet the ancient authors that were so admired by Milton considered bees to be special creatures. Their industrious gathering of nectar connected them with the immortals, and they served as an example of natural virtue. Like birds, trees and oracles, they could predict the future and foretold the rule of several tyrants and 1 Aurelio Lippo Brandolino 3.87, explaining how the power of kings is found even i