4.51–66

Hive start-up after winter ends; managing a spring swarm.

The hive comes to life in the spring. Bees forage in forests, seek flowers and water, raise their young, and produce wax and honey. This is also when they prone to swarm: they depart from the hive and seek a new home. Yet beekeepers are often able to lure the swarms with attractive odors and sounds, so that they can rehive them.

51 quod superest: “moreover.”

51–52 ubi…reclūsit: the spring equinox is when the sun subdues winter and drives it underground. Mynors suggests taking aestīva “in the wide sense.”

53 illae = apēs.

54 purpureōs: many commentators take purpureōs as “brightly-colored,” but honeybees are especially attracted to red, blue, and purple flowers, those that the ancients might well describe as purpureōs.

54 metunt < meto, metere, messuī, messus, “harvest.”

54–55 flūmina lībant summa: the bees sip from the surface of the water.

55 levēs: short initial “e”; nominative plural feminine. A verse in dactylic hexameter normally has a caesura (slight pause) in the middle of the third metrical foot. If not, when missing a 3rd foot caesura, will typically have caesurae in the 2nd and 4th feet, as they do here (AG 615.c).

55 hinc: Mynors notes that Vergil uses hinc in numerous senses. Thus, the repetition of hinc could indicate that these actions happen one after the other, because they are so delighted by the warmth of the sun, after the vernal equinox, or some combination of these meanings.

55 nēscio quā dulcēdine laetae: “pleased by some sweetness.”

56 arte: ars is, of course, a human pursuit, a deliberate and skillful creation only the human species is capable of. This is another example of Vergil’s personified honeybee community.

56 recentēs: with cērās. In spring the hive needs more room for honey storage and cells to raise brood, so wax production increases as well.

58–60 Hinc ubi…nūbem: these lines describe what is known as a swarm. When honeybees are feeling crowded in their hive they will often split into two colonies: one will remain in the hive with a new queen, and the other will exit with the old queen and begin to scout for a new home. They are usually fairly docile, and experienced beekeepers will capture them and remove them to a new hive. See also line 21.

58–59 hinc…agmen = hinc, ubi iam suspexeris agmen ēmissum caveīs nāre ad sīdera caelī per aestātem liquidam. caveīs: the hives; ablative place from which (without ex) (AG 428g).

59 nāre: “fly” (as opposed to “swim,” present active infinitive).

59 liquidam: a pun, with nāre.

59 suspexeris: second person singular future perfect active indicative.

60 obscūram…nūbem: the “dark cloud” is the swarm, which does move as a dark mass through the air.

60 ventō: either as an ablative of means or place where (that is, “on the wind,” AG 409, 429.4).

60 mīrābere: second person singular future indicative deponent.

61 contemplātor: second person singular future imperative deponent.

61 aquās dulcēs: “fresh water” (as opposed to salt water).

62 tecta: “homes,” or “shelter.”

62 hūc: on the trees toward which you see the bees moving.

62 iussōs sapōrēs: the beekeeper should scatter tasty, scented plants that the author is about to prescribe.

63 melisphylla: melisphylla might refer to any number of sweet-smelling plants of the family Lamiaeceae, but may well be Lemon balm (Melissa officianalis), which is native to Italy, prolific, and pleasing to bees.

63 cerinthae: Cerintha is likely honeywort (Cerinthe major), a sweet-smelling, blue-flowered plant very attractive to honeybees.

63 ignōbile: because it is a common plant.

64 cie: second person singular present active imperative < ciō, ciēre, cīvī, citus.

64 Matris: the goddess Cybele; cymbals were used in her rites. This alludes to the myth of the infant Zeus, who was fed by sacred honeybees in a cave on Mt. Dicte in Crete, while followers of Cybele covered his cries by making noise. As noted in lines 49–50, noise is not thought to affect bees, though they are subject to vibrations.

64 circum: “all around,” adverb.

65 ipsae = apēs.

65 medicātīs sēdibus: “the medicated seats,” that is, the branches have been sprinkled with the crushed herbs to make them smell appealing to the bees; ablative of place where without a preposition, as is common in poetry (AG 429.4).

66 mōre suō: “in their usual way.” A swarm of honeybees is usually happily transferred to a new home, provided that the queen is present.

66 cūnābula: the hive prepared for them and where their future offspring will be raised, again personifying the bees.