4.295–314

Restocking your hives if all your bees have died: Vergil explains the Egyptian practice step by step. 

First choose a small space, and construct a narrow shed with a roof. Each of the four walls should have a window, allowing for slanting light. Then take a calf, plug his nostrils to kill him, and beat the body till pulpy, but without breaking the skin. Place branches of thyme and cassia beneath the corpse. This should be done in early spring, before the west winds begin to blow, flowers bloom, or swallows nest. The moisture in the calf’s corpse will grow warm, and larvae and then bees will emerge from it and begin to fly, like a summer shower or the shot of an arrow.

295–296  exiguuus…locus = prīmum exiguuus atque contractus locus ēligitur in ipsōs ūsūs. ipsōs…in ūsūs: “for this very purpose.” 

296–297  hunc…artīs = premunt hunc <locum> imbrice angustī tectī parietibusque artīs. The subject is some number of Egyptian beekeepers. 

296  angustīque imbrice tectī: really, a narrow, tiled roof. The imbrex is a semicircular, terracotta roof tile. 

297  parietibus: in order for the line to scan, we need to read the first i as a consonant, so that it is pronounced paryetibus; an example of synaeresis (AG 603c).  artīs < artus, -a, -um. 

297-298  et quattuor…fenestrās = et addunt quattuor fenestrās ā quattuor ventīs oblīquā lūce. 

297  quattuor: the repetition of this word offers emphasis and is an excellent example of anaphora.

298  quattuor ā ventīs: referring to the four cardinal directions; that is, north, east, south and west. 

298  oblīquā lūce: “with slanting light,” ablative of quality (AG 415).

299  bīmā curvāns iam cornua fronte = iam curvāns cornua bīmā fronte; 

299  bīmā…fronte: an ablative of place where without a preposition, as is common in poetry (AG 429.4). 

299  cornua: accusative of respect with a body part (AG 397b).

300  huic: refers to the vitulus; dative of disadvantage (AG 376).

301  multa reluctantī: “although struggling a great deal.” multa is adverbial (AG 214d), reluctantī modifies huic, and should be taken as a predicate and concessive. 

301  obstruitur: the verb is singular because of the nearest nominative (spīritus); read as nārēs et spīritus…obstruuntur. 

301  plāgīs: ablative of means (AG 409).

301  perēmptō: supply eī, “to him destroyed,” dative of disadvantage (AG 376).  Vergil states that there should be no open wound from the beating: the suffocated animal should be beaten so that the viscera are a pulp, but with no open gashes.

302  tunsa…pellem: An example of a golden line, an abVAB structure. That is, adjective a, adjective b, verb, noun a, noun b. Golden lines are comparatively rare and considered exceptionally elegant. 

302  solvuntur: “are loosened” or “are broken up.” The process seems to indicate the corpse should be pulpy.

303  in clausō: supply locō; that is, the narrow, four-walled structure. costīs: likely a dative with sūbiciunt, though sūbicio is also sometimes found with the ablative.

303-304  rāmea…fragmenta: “broken off pieces of brush.” One could imagine practical reasons for placing fragrant plants under the corpse, but the two mentioned are also especially appealing to bees. 

304  thymum:  thyme, Thymus vulgaris. 

304  casiās: a fragrant shrub with a smell similar to cinnamon. There is no clear consensus on which plant is meant here; see note on line 182. thymum casiāsque is in apposition to fragmenta.

305  Zephyrīs…undās: “when the west wind is first driving on the waves.” Zephyrus is the west wind, which blows warm breezes in the spring. prīmum is used as an adverb (AG 214d). Zephyrīs impellentibus is an ablative absolute (AG 420).

306-307  rubeant…suspendat: present active subjunctive in primary sequence in a clause introduced by antequam (which is often separated into ante…quam, as it is here) (AG 550, 551c). 

307  tignīs: “beams,” ablative of place from which without a preposition, as is common in poetry (AG 428g).

307  hirundō: the European or barn swallow, Hirundo rustica, is the most widespread swallow species and a noted harbinger of spring. As their English name suggests, they are fond of building their nests on the rafters of barns. Several commentators observe that swallows do not hang their nests from the rafters (though martins do). Most helpful may be Mynors’s comment that “suspend” just means something suspended in midair, not necessarily hanging, and so could well be applied to a nest sitting in midair upon a rafter.

308  tenerīs…in ossibus: this process seems to “cook” and soften even the bones (see line 555), though we should not forget the soft part of the bone, the marrow, is where the ancients located the “seed” of life.

309  vīsenda = spectanda, “worth seeing.” 

309  modīs…mīrīs: ablative of quality with animālia (AG 415). The animālia are the newly created bees.

310  trunca pedum: “deprived of feet,” that is, in the larval stage. pedum is a genitive of plenty or want (AG 356).

310  prīmō: adverb (AG 214e).

310  et: “also” or “as well.” 

311  miscentur: “are thrown into confusion” or “swarm.” miscēre often has a sense of combining a group of things together when used in the passive. Obviously, this process would not actually result in bees, but some have suggested that the misidentification can be understood if what emerges from the bugonia is the drone fly, Eristalis tenax, so called because of its resemblance to a drone honeybee. 

311  magis magis: repetition for emphasis. 

311  āëra: a Greek noun (ἀήρ, ā-ēr), accusative singular and modified by tenuem (AG 82). carpunt: “hover on.” 

312-313  dōnec…ērūpēre: “until they have burst out.” dōnec is used here with the 3rd person plural perfect indicative active (AG 163a). The subject is the bees (animālia) (AG 554, 163a). 312–313  ut…ut: these are similes, likening the swarm of bees to a rain storm and a foreign war. 

312  aestīvīs…nūbibus: ablative of separation with effūsus (AG 402).

313-314: aut ut nervō…Parthī = aut ut sagittae nervō pulsante, sī quandō levēs Parthī ineunt prīma proelia. 

313  nervō pulsante: ablative separation (AG 402).

314  prīma: “the beginning of,” with proelia. 

314  levēs: the Parthians were traditionally great mounted archers, both agile and lightly armed. See note on line 211. 

314  quandō: this is the indefinite aliquandō, after sī (AG 310a).