> One wonders how much honey it took to
> sicken an army, and where the Greeks found that much of
> it. It doesn't make sense that the local beeks would
> keep it, knowing as they did that it was toxic. Sounds
> like an old soldier's tale.
Hello Walter,
From the archives at the H.H.A.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalHoneybeeArticles/
- 8 Parts - Part 4 - An account of the battle of Cunaxa, Xenophon;
fleeing solders eating toxic honey during the famous retreat of the Ten Thousand.
When they began running in that way, the enemy stood their
ground no longer, but betook themselves to flight, one in one
direction, one in another, and the Hellenes scaled the hill and
found quarters in numerous villages which contained supplies in
abundance. Here, generally speaking, there was nothing to excite
their wonderment, but the numbers of bee-hives were indeed
astonishing, and so were certain properties of the honey[4].
The effect upon the soldiers who tasted the combs was, that they
all went for the nonce quite off their heads, and suffered from
vomiting and diarrhoea, with a total inability to stand steady
on their legs. A small dose produced a condition not unlike violent
drunkenness, a large one an attack very like a fit of madness, and
some dropped down, apparently at death's door. So they lay, hundreds
of them, as if there had been a great defeat, a prey to the cruellest
despondency. But the next day, none had died; and almost at the same
hour of the day at which they had eaten they recovered their senses,
and on the third or fourth day got on their legs again like
convalescents after a severe course of medical treatment.
[4] "Modern travellers attest the existence, in these regions, of
honey intoxicating and poisonous. . . . They point out the
Azalea Pontica as the flower from which the bees imbibe this
peculiar quality."--Grote, "Hist. of Greece," vol. ix. p. 155.
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