The Tears of Re: Beekeeping in Ancient Egypt

by Gene Kritsky

According to Egyptian mythology, when the ancient Egyptian sun god Re cried, his tears turned into honey bees upon touching the ground. For this reason, the honey bee was sacrosanct in ancient Egyptian culture. From the art depicting bees on temple walls to the usage of beeswax as a healing ointment, the honey bee was a pervasive cultural motif in ancient Egypt because of its connection to the sun god Re. Gene Kritsky delivers a concise introduction of the relationship between the honey bee and ancient Egyptian culture, through the lenses of linguistics, archeology, religion, health, and economics. Kritsky delves into ancient Egypt's multifaceted society, and traces the importance of the honey bee in everything from death rituals to trade. In doing so, Kritsky brings new evidence to light of how advanced and fascinating the ancient Egyptians were.This richly illustrated work appeals to a broad range of interests. For archeology lovers, Kritsky delves into the archeological evidence of Egyptian beekeeping and discusses newly discovered tombs, as well as evidence of manmade hives. Linguists will be fascinated by Kritsky's discussion of the first documented written evidence of the honeybee hieroglyph. And anyone interested in ancient Egypt or ancient cultures in general will be intrigued by Kritsky's treatment of the first documented beekeepers. This book provides a unique social commentary of a community so far removed from modern humans chronologically speaking, and yet so fascinating because of the stunning advances their society made. Beekeeping is the latest evidence of how ahead of their times the Egyptians were, and the ensuing narrative is as captivating as every other aspect of ancient Egyptian culture.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Historical, Egyptology, Archaeology, Science, Egypt

221 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 4, 2015

Reviews

[Nga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting topic with valuable insights from a knowledgeable author. I decided to read this book as since college, ancient Egyptian art and culture have always held me captivated. The book might be a little bit challenging for people who are new to this topic; however Kritsky's language is elaborate, unambiguous and his black & white and colored photographs are well presented throughout the book, all of which are very helpful to the understanding of the matter. The author will walk you chronologically through the history of beekeeping, the meaning of honey bee hieroglyph, the physical, spiritual and religious significance that honey bee played in ancient Egyptian society. The final chapter is dedicated to the continuity of beekeeping culture in Egypt from over 5,000 years ago until the present day. After all, it's quite amazing to fathom the rise and fall of the honey bee as a cultural motif and traditional beekeeping as a common practice among the Egyptian, which adds to my admiration for one of the most developed and innovative civilizations of the Old World.

[Iset · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprisingly enjoyable read, given that my interest in beekeeping can be described as idle at best, and knowledge basic. Kritsky writes in an accessible style that makes the book suitable for general readership, whilst clearly having been scrupulous in his research. The first few chapters offer a chronological examination of the evidence of beekeeping through ancient Egyptian history, whilst later chapters discuss the bee hieroglyph, and the many varied uses of honey and beeswax in ancient Egypt – everything from food, to medicine, lamps, to metal-casting. It’s no wonder then that honey was rather expensive. Bees even had some interesting religious associations, including a charming tale about their origins as tears of the sun-god Re.

8 out of 10

[Hildegunn Hodne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although an interesting topic, the format is perhaps not as good as it could be. Half the book is written as a list of bee images found in Egyptian toombs in chronological order; describing these in detail. It all becomes quite monotonous and repetative, especially when the book also contains pictures of what is being described, with the same bee image often shown in black and white photo, as close-up and in color photo. However, the last part of the book does make it an interesting read, with information about the use of honey bee products in ancient Egypt, and the decline to near extinction of the Egyptian native bee today.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great introduction into beekeeping in Ancient Egyptian but far away from a master of the subject. It's written in a slightly disorganized fashion and doesn't add all the different important pieces of beekeeping together very well. Nonetheless, I walked away from this book having learned something and that's the point. I did write tons of little post it notes which I'll gloss over the next few days. The author definitely sidesteps anything remotely female - whether that's a male gaze or from a lack of information isn't entirely clear. Egyptian traditional beekeeping is a practice that goes back almost 5000 thousand years, with both religious and cultural significances. I loved it. I loved that bees were central to their economy, their religion, and their diets. That is was practiced in medicine and in temples and on the tables of the wealthy. Heiroglyphic reliefs of bees, honey vessels, and beehives have been found on temples and in tombs from almost 4500 thousand years ago. It's written fairly well. The first few chapters seemed less like a speculative relationship of bees and Ancient Egyptian culture and more of a list of what reliefs of bees have been found, where, and when and who the major players were when it came to beekeeping in Egyptian society. Which was nice, but that's what pictures are for. I would have enjoyed more theories and ideas on where and why these importances exist.

[Geeome · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice history of beekeeping from egyptoligical angle. Easy to read and very interesting.

[Erika · Rating 2 out of 5]

A look at bees and bee keeping in ancient Egypt.
This is a fascinating topic and before hearing about this book I had no idea how important bees were in ancient Egypt. The book covers a lot of ground in just 133 pages, the first half mostly covers artistic and hieroglyphic representations of bees in tombs and various artifacts, and while much of that was interesting the presentation was a bit dry and repetitive. The second half dealt more with the actual practice of bee keeping and what little we know about how they did this and the role honey played in their culture. This part felt a bit more dynamic than the first, though a bit slight most likely owing to just how relatively few records from that time period survived into our times.
A good book for those already familiar with Egypt and hieroglyphs but probably a bit dry and slow for the average reader, it took me way longer to get through than a 133 page book should have.

[Margaret Schachte · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was lovely! Everything you've ever wanted to know about beekeeping in Ancient Egypt. The writing is clear and to the point with no unnecessary detours. The author promises beekeeping content and he delivers. There are PLENTY of color pictures which is amazing! You can follow along with the author's writing and see images of all the hieroglyphs, art, and artifacts he mentions. It really helps you practice identifying bees and beehives in Egyptian writing/art.

According to myth the sun god Re cried tears that turned into the world's first bees. My little brother (who was casually reading over my shoulder) pointed out that it makes sense because the bees are yellow like little drops of sunlight. Something I hadn't noticed until he pointed it out!

[Emma Hilliard · Rating 3 out of 5]

First two thirds might be of interest to people with lots of background in material culture or those looking for lots of pics of bee hieroglyphs. My eyes were glazing over. The last third had what I really wanted: myths involving bees, magical and medical properties of honey, etc. Not quite what I was looking for overall, but still a quick and interesting enough read.

[Madeline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved the book! I didn't expect the subject of beekeeping in Egypt to be this fascinating! The author explains in a way that is both clear and keeps interest well! I definitely recommend to anyone who has a fascination with Egypt or beekeeping or both!

[Br. Thanasi (Thomas) Stama · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting concise and brief history of Ancient Egypt's honey culture from religion to at the end practice. Recommend it to all interested in honey and the honey bee.

[Liz Licata · Rating 3 out of 5]

very interesting, but it could have used better organization.

[Jenna Levine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this for class but added it to my goodreads because I enjoyed it

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Tears of Re" described the currently available information about bees, honey, and beekeeping in ancient Egypt. Apparently, we know very little about ancient beekeeping practices, though we know they did it and they even had an administrative structure based around it. The author gave detailed descriptions of the existing visual evidence in tombs and temples related to bees, honey, and beekeeping. He described what can still be seen, what parts have been destroyed, and the different theories about what, exactly, the scenes depict.

He also included what ancient written sources say about beekeeping, the worth of honey, how honey was used in food and medicine, how beeswax was used, and the various myths about the origin and purpose of bees. He provided several translations of various texts that he quoted so we could get a good feel for what was meant. He also talked about beekeeping practices that were used in Egypt until recently which look very similar to the ancient visual record.

It's a short book, but it did a nice job of presenting the available information about beekeeping practices and bee products used in ancient Egypt. I'd recommend it to those seriously interested in the topic.

I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Lisa Llamrei · Rating 3 out of 5]

While doing heavy research for my novel set in ancient Egypt, I bought this book on a lark, thinking it would be a fun, easy read and provide a bit of a respite from my more detailed reading.

I did get to the fun, but it took a while. Kritsky starts out by detailing every single inscription of bees, bee hieroglyphs, beekeeping, honey and all things related for all 3,000 years of Egyptian history. This was very dry to read, and (judging by the comments of other reviewers) probably confusing for those who don't already have at least a general understanding of the timeline and broad divisions of Egyptian history. This is valuable reference information, but I think it would have been better as an appendix instead of the lead chapters.

When it does get interesting, it gets very interesting. There was an entire administration built around beekeeping - in all my readings about Egypt over the last thirty years, I never I came across this before. Kritsky also has reams of information about honey and beeswax as food and medicine and their uses in magic and ritual. As well, he details traditional Egyptian beekeeping techniques into the twentieth century and points to the similarity between these and the ancient depictions.

"The Tears of Re" is for those who have a strong interest in ancient Egypt and/or in beekeeping.

[Paul Franco · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting a quick easy read from this book that is so short it would have been called a novella had it been fiction. It proved to be neither quick nor easy.
I like to think of myself as an amateur Egyptologist, though that might be pushing it; it’s one thing to memorize the gods, but to remember every pharaoh and hieroglyph seems silly. The problem here is the author assumes the reader does know all that, so I had to keep looking through other books and/or the internet to understand the context. It’s really too scholarly to enjoy, reading like a grad school paper; most lay people would probably be bored quickly. The most interesting part was the chapter on the honeybee hieroglyph, which was completely unexpected. Can’t help but wonder if this actually was some grad school term paper where someone had the bright idea of selling it to the public without revisions.
1/10th of this already short book is bibliography.

[Lili · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beekeeping is cool, Ancient Egypt is cool...seeing them combined means super cool! This is a very niche subject that I honestly never thought I wanted to know about, but in hindsight I did. I should have immediately wanted to know about the apiary practices in Egypt when archaeologists found ancient and still edible honey in a tomb.

This is a fairly short little read, highlighting what we do and don't know about beekeeping in Ancient Egypt using temple art, records, and such. It is quite fascinating and very enjoyable. A read that can appeal to both lovers of bees and history.

[Eileen Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating account of beekeeping in Ancient Egypt!