2021-05-20 Thu

Long before people developed agriculture and lived in settled communities, honey gathered from the hives of wild bees was valued as a precious, almost magical commodity. It was so valued that the hieroglyph for “bee” came to be used as the symbol for the ruler of Lower Egypt.

Images of the bee as a symbol appear very early in the development of ancient Greek coinage. In particular, the prosperous city of Ephesus in Ionia adopted the bee as its civic emblem. The high priest of the temple was known as the “king bee” and the priestesses were called melissae (honeybees). There are nearly a thousand different known types of bee-and-stag coins from Ephesus.

In ca. 350-340 BC the magistrate Kallikrates of the city of Ephesos issued a silver coin with a bee on it. This silver tetradrachm depicts a bee on the obverse flanked by two Greek letters. The reverse depicts the Forepart of the stag right with its head turned to look back with a palm tree behind. The legend reads magistrate’s name Kallikrates.

The bee disappears from Ephesian coinage after Ephesus becomes part of the Roman Empire as the capital of the province of Asia. The image of the Emperor normally appears on the obverse of Roman provincial coins, so there was no place for the bee.

Image Courtesy: wildwinds.com