On Food and Cooking

savory than honey,” and their bedchamber as
“honeyfilled.” In the Old Testament, the
promised land is pictured several times as a
land flowing with milk and honey, a metaphor
of delightful plenty that is itself used
figuratively in the Song of Songs, where
another bridegroom chants, “Thy lips, O my
spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and
milk are under thy tongue...”
Honey remained an important ingredient in
both the food and culture of classical Greece
and Rome. The Greeks offered it in
ceremonies to the dead and the gods, and
priestesses of the goddesses Demeter,
Artemis, and Rhea were called melissai: the
Greek melissa, like the Hebrew deborah,
means “bee.” The prestige of honey was due
in part to its mysterious origins and to a belief
that it was a little bit of heaven fallen to earth.
The Roman natural historian Pliny speculated
in entertaining detail on honey’s nature.