Eros and the Bees. In an idyll ascribed to Theocritus (but now rejected), the tale is told of the infant Eros (Cupid) stung by a honeybee as he tried to steal a honeycomb. Running to his mother, Aphrodite (Venus), for comfort, the mischievous god received an object lesson: now he knew what pain his arrows inflicted on others. Although he cried pitifully, the boy-god did not take her moral to heart.

Most postclassical treatments are poetic derivations of the antique idyll or its Anacreontic imitation.



Classical Sources. Theocritus, Idylls, no. 19, “Eros and the Bee” (rejected attribution). Anacreontea 25 (imitation of Pseudo-Theocritus).