Bees

Jupiter was nourished by bees in infancy. (See Athenian Bee, p. 72, col. 1.)

Pindar is said to have been nourished by bees with honey instead of milk.

The coins of Ephesus had a bee on the reverse.

The Greeks consecrated bees to the moon.

With the Romans a flight of bees was considered a bad omen. Appian (Civil War, book ii.) says a swarm of bees lighted on the altar and prognosticated the fatal issue of the battle of Pharsalĭa.

The priestesses of Cerēs were called bees.

In Christian Art St. Ambrose is represented with a beehive, from the tradition that a swarm of bees settled on his mouth in his infancy.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.