July 3: Travel Month

Nymphs in ancient Greece were seen as quite libertarian (hence “nymphomaniac”). Most of them had a multitude of affairs and because their beauty didn’t fade away with age, not seldom they dated divine fathers as well as their sons, with as a result confusing family ties. Take Othreïs for instance. She had a son by Apollo, Phagrus, and later, she got pregnant by Apollo’s father Zeus. As Zeus had to hide his newborn for his jealous wife, he assigned a swarm of bees to nourish him. The boy was appropriately named “bee-man”, or Meliteus. Othreïs then asked her first born Phagrus, to keep an eye on him. Which fulfilled the prophecy that Phagrus would foster his half brother, who also happened to be the son of his grandfather (Zeus in this case). Meliteus was a sweet and talented kid and would grow up to found the “honey-city” of Melite on the island with still the same name: Malta. Melite (now Mdina) has long been Malta’s capital, and in antiquity, the city attracted lots of artists and writers, hoping to create “honey sweet” poetry.

Domus Romana, Mdina, Malta

Water nymph, Corinium Museum, Cirencester, UK

Did you know?

• The Greek for “honey” is “meli”, which shows in the French “miel”.

• The fable writer Aesop also wrote about bees and honey, cfr. “Sticky”