Jupiter and the Bee
A bee asks a blessing of the king of the gods, but what she gets from him is not quite what she had in mind.
A bee asks a blessing of the king of the gods, but what she gets from him is not quite what she had in mind.
This Fable is a reprimand to those who go beyond protecting themselves from attack, which is very reasonable, and take to visiting harm on everyone whom their fears inflate into a threat. It is not only unjust, but self-defeating: after all, where would bees be without beekeepers, and beekeepers without bees?
IN days of yore, when the world was young, a Bee that had stored her combs with a bountiful harvest flew up to heaven to present as a sacrifice an offering of honey.
Jupiter* was so delighted with the gift, that he promised to give her whatsoever she should ask for. She therefore besought him, saying, “O glorious Jove, maker and master of me, poor Bee, give thy servant a sting, that when any one approaches my hive to take the honey, I may kill him on the spot.”
Jupiter, out of love to man, was angry at her request, and thus answered her: “Your prayer shall not be granted in the way you wish, but the sting which you ask for you shall have; and when any one comes to take away your honey and you attack him, the wound shall be fatal not to him but to you, for your life shall go with your sting.”
He that prays harm for his neighbour begs a curse upon himself.*
* Jupiter (like Jove later in this passage) is the Roman god corresponding to the Greek god Zeus.
* See Matthew 5:43-45: Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.