Honeybees have been sources of myths and superstitions from the ancient eras of Egypt, Greece and Rome. Virgil of Rome wrote in "Georgics" a story of bees born from dead bulls.

The following is an outline of his story.

"Aristaeus, a half-god, taught men how to keep bees. Because repeating floods of the Nile River caused starvation and disease, all of the bees were destroyed. Disappointed, Aristaeus complained to his mother about what had happened to the bees. She, with the help of the sea God, Proteus, told Aristaeus how to create bees. This is how they started obtaining bees out of killed bulls."

In Ancient Egypt a method of obtaining bees based on this myth existed. People killed a bull and buried it, leaving its horns above the ground. Then they cut the horns with a saw and waited for bees to come out from the stubs of the horns. Interestingly, they believed king bees would come from the brain, worker bees from the flesh of bulls, hornets from mules, other bees from donkeys.

Actually no bees come out from dead bulls. Modern entomologists believe they mistook gadflies born in rotten bulls for bees.