Bugonia

Bugonia (; Ancient Greek: βουγονία bougoníā) was a folk practice in the ancient Mediterranean region based on the belief that bees were spontaneously generated from a cow's carcass. By extension, it was thought that fumigation with cow dung was beneficial to the health of the hive. It is possible that bugonia had more currency as a poetic and learned trope than as an actual practice. The process is described by Virgil in the fourth book of the Georgics. Multiple other writers mention the practice. A detailed description of bugonia is found in the Byzantine Geoponica: Build a house, ten cubits high, with all the sides of equal dimensions, with one door, and four windows, one on each side; put an ox into it, thirty months old, very fat and fleshy; let a number of young men kill him by beating him violently with clubs, so as to mangle both flesh and bones, but taking care not to shed any blood; let all the orifices, mouth, eyes, nose etc. be stopped up with clean and fine linen, impregnated with pitch; let a quantity of thyme be strewed under the reclining animal, and then let windows and doors be closed and covered with a thick coating of clay, to prevent the access of air or wind. After three weeks have passed, let the house be opened, and let light and fresh air get access to it, except from the side from which the wind blows strongest. Eleven days afterwards, you will find the house full of bees, hanging together in clusters, and nothing left of the ox but horns, bones and hair. The myth of Aristaeus was an archetype of this practice, serving to instruct bee keepers on how to recover from the loss of their bees.