The Healing Powers of Honey Read Online Free Page B

sky and king of the gods. Enter Melissa—the meaning is “honey bee”—who nurtured Zeus during the time he was estranged from his father. Melissa fed Zeus honey that she borrowed from beehives. This good feat, in turn, ended up in an evil punishment for the caring woman. Cronos transformed her into a worm. The end result: Zeus was thankful for Melissa’s help with the golden nectar and like a good warlock he turned her into a queen bee. 4
    Honey is also known as the nectar of Aphrodite—the Greek goddess of love and beauty. As mythology and folklore enthusiasts tell it, she allegedly pacified Cerberus, the three-headed dog, with a sweet honey cake and paid Charon to take her to Hades. En route, she saw hands reaching out of the water. A voice told her to toss a honey cake to them. She tossed the cake out to the hands and gave one to Cerberus. The sweet gift of honey got the goddess to where she wanted to be.
    THE EGYPTIAN SEED OF HONEY . . .
    While myths and legends are mind-boggling, inscriptions on Sumerian tables are more believable and hint that the Sumerians were the world’s first beekeepers. But it is believed it was really the ancient Egyptians who started the craft of tending to bees and reaping rewards. Wild bee swarms were lured into containers and taken back to the temples and the priests were given the job of tending to the bees.
    By 2600 B.C., beekeeping was happening and honey was being praised for its versatile uses in medicine, beauty preparations, and trade. 5
    The ancient Egyptians were also known to include honey in cooking, especially for honey cakes, and as offerings to the gods. Jars of honey—which is an excellent preserver—were buried with the pharaohs to sustain them in the afterlife, a practice that was also common in Mesopotamia, where honey was used for its healing health powers. 6

    Sweet Honey Wine of Ancient Myths
    The history of mead (honey made into wine) is worth a mention, since its roots go back to rituals of the Celts, Anglo-Saxons, and Vikings. As the legend goes, mead was touted to have healing power. The word “honeymoon” stems from the time when newlyweds indulged in mead for one month following the wedding. As legend has it, if the mead was “proper,” a son would be the end result within nine months.
    The art of making mead, including adding herbs, began in the Middle Ages. Mixing grape and other fruit wines with this sweet beverage can be traced back to Roman times. As time passed, mead was replaced by beverages such as wine made from grapes or other fruits.
    ( Source: National Honey Board.)
    . . . BLOSSOMED TO ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME
    Once Egypt paved the way for beekeeping, Greece and Rome were next in line. Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Dioscorides touted honey’s magic, noting its amazing remedies, including as a wound salve, a cough medicine, an aid to rid one of body lice, and a cure for earache, ulcers, and even hemorrhoids.
    In Greek mythology there are references to honey, with the moniker “the nectar of the gods.” After all, it was the Greeks who first noted the flavors of honeys and potpourri of nectar sources. The most beloved honey, from the perspective of the Greeks, was honey that came from thyme—growing on the slopes near Athens. Honey was the only sweetener available in Europe at the time, aside from syrups made from dried fruits, and herbs such as cicely. 7
    The ancient Romans put honey on a pedestal, as the Greeks did. Apicius, a famous gourmand, praised honey in more than half of his recipes, including one for roast dormouse (brushed with honey) and another for honey-baked ham. Both Egyptians and Greeks prized honey as a remarkable food preservative. 8

    The Old Philosopher and the Honey
    As the tale goes, Democritus, a Greek philosopher, set his mind on dying at age 110. To achieve this goal he resisted food, day by day. His idea was to limit his food intake until he perished. The glitch