Honeybees procreate in an unusual way.
Bees do not have sex, and then produce offspring as a result. Instead, the bees harvest offspring from leaves and carry them back to the hive in their mouths. This harvest supplies both the king and the citizens of the hive, who give their entire selves to the hive, maintaining it and working for its greater glory. Though the individual life of each bee is short, the race itself is immortal.
197 illum…mōrem = mīrābere adeō illum mōrem placuisse apibus. adeō: “too” or “especially,” adding emphasis to illum.
197 mirābēre: “you will wonder” (AG 166).
198 quod: “that” or “the fact that” (AG 572).
198 concubitū indulgent: “they indulge in sex.” concubitū is an old form of the dative, with indulgēre.
199 in Venerem: “in love.” Venus always suggests sexual love, and here is yet another example of personification.
199 fētūs: accusative plural masculine of fētus, -ūs (m).
199 nīxibus: ablative of means (AG 409).
200 vērum: “but” (AG 324d).
200 ipsae: this refers to the workers without the drones. Vergil is obviously incorrect about this practice, since bees are not collected by mouth from plants. Aristotle and Pliny also mention this belief (HA 5.21; HN 11.46). In fact, a queen bee in the first days of her life makes mating flights with drones from other hives, and then returns to her own hive to spend the rest of her life laying fertilized eggs.
201 ōre < ōs, ōris (n), ablative of means (AG 409).
201 parvōs Quirītēs: “the little citizens.” Quirītēs is specifically a term for “Roman citizens.” Vergil suggests that the bees, having chosen new bees from leaves and plants, are then able to install them as a “king” or as other new members of the hive. Perhaps Vergil sees this as a more perfect way of allotting tasks among the citizenry.
202 aulāsque…refīngunt: it is unclear whether Vergil is saying that the bees are constantly fashioning new homes with the new bees they have scavenged, or whether they remodel the hive for them. Bees, in actuality, do both.
203 errandō: gerund as an ablative of cause (AG 404).
204 attrīvēre: alternate form of the 3rd person plural perfect active indicative (AG 163a). Bees do in fact wear away their wings—it is the cause of their comparatively short lifespan in the summer months.
204 ultrō: “readily.”
204 sub fasce: “under their burden.”
204 dedēre: alternate form of the 3rd person plural perfect active indicative (AG 163a). Both attrīvēre and dedēre are gnomic perfects (AG 475). The bees give their lives in service to the hive.
205 tantus: supply est.
205 flōrum: objective genitive (AG 348).
205 generandī: gerundive with mellis, “the glory of producing honey” (AG 504).
207 excipiat: “receives,” present subjunctive in concessive clause (AG 527a).
207 plūs:quam is omitted here, with no change in case (AG 407c).
207 septima…aestās: bees do not live anywhere close to seven summers. A worker bee’s lifespan is typically a few weeks in summer, a queen lives perhaps a few summers, though seven would be exceptional. Drones do not live even a year.
208 immortāle: take as a predicate.
209 domūs: genitive singular feminine.
210 avī…avōrum: “the grandfathers of grandfathers.” Despite the fact that bees appear to be harvested, Vergil suggests a continuity between the generations, based on shared values of the hive rather than blood relationships.
