The Tears of Re: Beekeeping in Ancient Egypt

by Gene Kritsky

Hardcover, 2015

Status

Available

Call number

638.10962

Genres

Collection

Whealton

Publication

Oxford University Press (2015), Edition: Illustrated, 160 pages

Description

According to Egyptian mythology, when the ancient Egyptian sun god Re cried, his tears turned into honey bees upon touching the ground. For this reason, the honey bee was sacrosanct in ancient Egyptian culture. From the art depicting bees on temple walls to the usage of beeswax as a healing ointment, the honey bee was a pervasive cultural motif in ancient Egypt because of its connection to the sun god Re. Gene Kritsky delivers the first book to examine the relationship between the honey bee and ancient Egyptian culture, through the lenses of linguistics, archeology, religion, health, and econo

Media reviews

Bryn Mawr Classical Review

t is not by chance that honeybees now finally have our attention again. With the emergence of colony collapse disorder in 2006, honeybees are regularly in the headlines and we have begun to think critically, deeply, and creatively about our relationship with these creatures. I imagine that there

are few fields that have not benefitted from their own examinations into the bee, and the studies of ancient civilizations are no exception. As Kritsky explains in his preface, he is an entomologist by education and trade but an Egyptologist through his own lifelong interest (xi), and his book, The Tears of Re: Beekeeping in Ancient Egypt, is a marriage of these two passions. His biological background and his travels through Egypt have made him uniquely qualified to tackle his topic, and, while he is not formally trained as an Egyptologist, his knowledge of the insect and of apicultural practices lend considerable insight to the study that he tackles. This book offers an excellent glimpse into the world of ancient Egypt and creates a surprisingly detailed picture of the cultural significance of this insect, honey, and the apicultural practices of Egypt, based on limited pictorial evidence and a deep and thorough understanding of how bees behave and are kept around the world. Kritsky's book is not analytical in the way one might expect if he were an art historian; he is attempting to gain an understanding of beekeeping practices in ancient Egypt, not trying to analyze and interpret the meaning of these images as art or propaganda — though this would, at times, be helpful.

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User reviews

LibraryThing member Welsh_eileen2

A fascinating account of beekeeping in Ancient Egypt!

1 more

LibraryThing member Kellswitch

A look at bees and bee keeping in ancient Egypt.
This is a fascinating topic and before hearing about this book I had no idea how important bees were in ancient Egypt. The book covers a lot of ground in just 133 pages, the first half mostly covers artistic and hieroglyphic representations of bees in

tombs and various artifacts, and while much of that was interesting the presentation was a bit dry and repetitive. The second half dealt more with the actual practice of bee keeping and what little we know about how they did this and the role honey played in their culture. This part felt a bit more dynamic than the first, though a bit slight most likely owing to just how relatively few records from that time period survived into our times.
A good book for those already familiar with Egypt and hieroglyphs but probably a bit dry and slow for the average reader, it took me way longer to get through than a 133 page book should have.

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