Bugonie

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Aristaios and the Bugonia (1517)

Bugonie describes the legendary notion that was widespread in antiquity and the Middle Ages that a colony of bees and other insects would develop by themselves from the decomposing body of a dead bull . Although modern biology and the representatives of beekeeping do not consider this to be possible, the Bugonie, which probably came from Persia and found its way into the world of classical antiquity via Egypt , was apparently practiced.

Sources of Latin Literature

In addition to Pliny the Elder and Varro , Virgil and Ovid in particular are responsible for the procedure in a Bugonia. In this process, a cattle that is at least two years old is suffocated or killed with bludgeoning and then its entrails are smashed with blows from blunt objects. The belly of the animal must not be injured, however, as the new bee colony should emerge from this. The animal is then left in a chamber until the bees have developed from the rotting entrails.

For Virgil's work Georgica in particular , the Bugonie is of particular importance as an example of the emergence of something new from something dead. For him it serves as an analogue to the rule of the Roman emperor Augustus , who also established the new state order of the principate from the fall of the republic . Ovid also describes the development of the bull in his Metamorphoses , and in his work Fasti he praises the bull who "gave life to thousands in death". There are innumerable opinions about the "winged cattle", also called by Varro.

There are also rumors of snakes crawling out of people, of beetles crawling out of donkeys , or of hornets that are supposed to fly away from war horses. Experts call these narratives procreation hypotheses.

literature

  • Eckard Lefèvre : The laudes Galli in Virgil's Georgica . In: Vienna Studies . 99 = NF No. 20 , 1986, pp. 183-192 ( online ).
  • P. Vergilius Maro: Georgica. Volume 2: . Edited, translated and commented by Manfred Erren . Winter, Heidelberg 2003, ISBN 3-8253-1386-7 , pp. 892-904.
  • Nadja Kosuch: Animal diseases and their control on the Central Weser in the Spiegel Nienburger sources (17th to 19th century) . Tenea, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-86504-102-7 ( tiho-hannover.de [PDF; 7.3 MB ] At the same time: Hanover, University of Veterinary Medicine, dissertation, 2004).
  • Tobias Lemkuhl: The Bugonie. In: Berliner Zeitung , from August 25, 2004.
  • Christian Zgoll: The Phenomenology of Metamorphosis. Metamorphoses and related things in Augustan poetry (=  Classica Monacensia . Volume 28 ). Narr, Tübingen 2004, ISBN 3-8233-6025-6 , p. 238 (At the same time: Munich, University, dissertation, 2002).
  • Wolfgang Speyer : Early Christianity in the ancient radiation field (= scientific studies on the New Testament. Vol. 213). Volume 3. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-16-149264-8 , p. 41.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Pliny, Naturalis historia 11, 70.
  2. ↑ Varro, De re rustica 2, 5, 5.
  3. ^ Virgil, Georgica 4, 312 ff.
  4. ↑ Ovid, Fasti 1, 375 ff.