Note 461 — Chapter XII · THE SACRED MARRIAGE

Pausanias, viii. 13. 1. As to the meaning of the title Essen see Callimachus, Hymn to Zeus, 16; Hesychius, Suidas, and Etymologicum Magnum, s.v. Ἕσσην. The ancients mistook the Queen bee for a male, and hence spoke of King bees. See Aristotle, Histor. animal. v. 21 sq., ix. 40, pp. 553, 623 sqq., ed. Bekker; id., De animalium generatione, iii. 10, p. 760, ed. Bekker; Aelian, Nat. animal. i. 10, v. 10 sq.; Virgil, Georg. iv. 21, 68; W. Walter-Tornow, De apium mellisque apud veteres significatione (Berlin, 1894), pp. 30 sqq. The Essenes or King Bees are not to be confounded with the nominal kings (Basileis) of Ephesus, who probably held office for life. See above, vol. i. p. 47.