In The Beginning

Long ago, long before Hymettus or Kolbee or even the great Hymetta, there were just God and men. God had created a beautiful world with all sorts of vegetation. Giant trees that seemed to stretch above clouds and bushes that found themselves alone in vast expanses of hot deserts. There were important plants that bore delicious juicy fruits or savory spices and plants whose flowers were admired by suitors for their aesthetics. From melons to coriander to orchids, children of men loved each of these and every one in between. However, there were only so many of these plants, and they did not spread so easily as weeds. Many years some of these plants never came back. Poor men hoped for more so that they could feed their families, and rich men were left wanting so they might court beauties – the apples of their eyes. God walked among his gardens and looked upon his peoples. He looked down on them with sorrow, for their pain was his pain. He decided to walk among men as one of them. He wanted to see their gardens as they saw them; he wanted to taste their fruits. 

God dressed himself in ragged cloth and took a single step from his heavens above to the gardens of man, as only a god could. He appeared next to the orchids and admired them for their beauty and unique shape. He continued to walk and found roses of two colors – one of red, one of white. When he stumbled upon the lilies, he saw a man placing a single lily into his lady’s hair. While these flowers were beautiful, he noticed that they were few and far between. All the rose bushes in all the lands could be squeezed into an acre, and there only two colors would be found, separated from each other. The orchids and lilies fared no better, nor did any of the other plants of beauty he saw that day. As men worked hard to cultivate fruit-bearing plants, more of those could be found. However, each plant bore small numbers of their fruit. He plucked an apple from a tree and took a bite. It was crisp and slightly sweet with a touch of tang. It tasted good, but the apple was missing something. Next, he came across a squash. When he bit into it the texture was too soft, and the taste was bland. He continued to taste foods from tall trees, shrubs and even from vines.

He was disappointed with the eatings of men. Some were good while others were not, but nothing made his taste buds sing. Then, he chanced upon a single tree – the only of its kind. It was a nectarine tree, and it bore but a few small nectarines. They appeared past ripe but still hung on the tree. God grabbed one and pulled gingerly so as not to squish it. As his teeth sank into the meat and the juices exploded across his tongue, he experienced perhaps the best bite he had ever come across. He never imagined a fruit so sweet could exist outside his own gardens. It was so sweet, so delectable, that tears began to swell in his eyes. The tears rolled down his cheeks just as the juice down his chin. Although the tears fell through the air, they never hit the ground. Before they were able to water the soil, they took shape and began to transform. Each tear turned into a small creature – a tiny black-and-yellow-striped creature with buzzing wings. As if on instinct, the small flying critters landed on the blooming flowers of the nectarine tree and began to dance around it before settling in to work. God smiled at his new creation for he knew these small angels would go on to do very big things. Thus, the first bees were born.

                                                                                                           Ripening Nectarine

                                                                                          Living in Monrovia (2011). Source: Flickr

Author’s Note: See, I knew changing Jupiter way back in the first storybook was a good idea (yay for thinking ahead)! The original story is actually based on the Egyptian god Ra, whose tears turn into bees to help create and preserve life through pollination (the honey is just a bonus)! Seriously, that’s the whole legend as far as I know. That was even less to work with than any of Aesop’s Fables! So, basically this whole thing is all new. I chose nectarines as the special fruit because it’s thanks to them that God sheds his tears and bees come into existence, so the inference here is that when God does try the honey (as a drink), he’ll name it nectar (the drink of the gods) after the fruit. It’s actually sad that honey didn’t even get to showcase in this story, although this story is more about the event leading up to its creation, and I think we can all assume what the next part of the story would be without me just saying “and then the bees made honey,” which I think would have taken something away by trying to spell it out. I would say that this being the last edition to the storybook is bitter-sweet, but let’s face it. There’s nothing bitter about honey! As far as God going through all of this trouble instead of just instantly granting them full gardens full of sweet foods? Well, "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all." -Futurama

Bibliography: STILLWELL, KRISTEN MARY ELIZABETH, M.A. The Gift of the Bee-Poet: Bee Symbolism in H.D.’s Poetry and Prose (2012) .      Web source: Stillwell thesis