Pliny on the portents of the bees

"Bees provide signs of future events both private and public, when a cluster of them hangs down in houses and temples — portents that have often been presaged by momentous events. They settled on the mouth of Plato when he was a young child and foretold the charm of his very pleasing eloquence. They settled in Drusus' camp at the time of our great victory at Arbalo: indeed augurs, who always think the presence of bees is a bad omen, are not invariably correct."

[Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book 11, section 55, translated by John F. Healy]

Notes from April 12, 2013

—Three philosophers: the spider, the ant, and the bee

(a) The ant collects
(b) The spider spins
(c) The bee transforms