The Myth of Bugonia
What links a biblical riddle (Judges 14:14), a tin of treacle/syrup and a hoverfly known as the Common Dronefly? No, this isn’t one of those jokes. Yet, surprisingly, they are connected let me explain.
In my research for articles about hoverflies, I stumbled across one of those curious diversions that so often lead me down an unexpected path. What began as a casual reference soon became an intriguing mystery, linking a Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax) a biblical riddle and a tin of treacle/golden syrup.
First let’s look carefully at the tin of treacle, what do you see? I have zoomed in on the logo so you can see it better.
What I see is a male lion with a slogan underneath ‘out of the strong came forth sweetness’ The male lion is lying down on grass surrounded by these little dots. Which I presume are meant to be a swarm of bees.
Hopefully you are asking the same questions I did……
Is the lion alive or dead?
Why is it lying down?
Why is there a swarm of bees around the lion?
Why would a manufacturer use a lion as a logo, with bees around it and some scripture from the bible about meat and sweetness?
The reference to sweetness seems obvious enough. After all, golden syrup is a sweet, sticky product created during the refining of sugar. Yet the quotation also refers to meat, something conspicuously absent from the ingredients list on my tin of golden of syrup.
Before I answer any of those questions let me start at the beginning……
The Biblical riddle…
The quote from the Bible is known as Samson’s riddle.‘Out of the eater came forth meat; and out of the strong came forth sweetness.’
Samson’s riddle from the Old Testament of the Bible refers to a story about Samson who killed a lion and a few days later discovered honey from within the carcass. Having nothing to give as a gift for his upcoming marriage, he sets a wager: If his wedding guests unravel the meaning of the riddle within 7 days he will give them thirty garments, or if not resolved they would give him thirty garments.
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Source: The Marked Bible: Marshall, Morgan, and Scott: Edition 1963
It is an impossible riddle to solve without knowing of Sansom’s encounter with a lion. A bit like in Tolkien’s The Hobbit where Gollum must guess what Bilbo had in his pocket, another so called riddle/question.
Why, Bilbo had the one ring in his pocket of course, but Gollum did not know he had lost his precious (ring), so how could he guess it? ‘The tricksy little hobbitses’ as Gollum would say.
Samson’s tale/riddle has eluded theologians and philosophers for centuries, but it speaks of an ancient belief called spontaneous generation, often referred to as Bugonia.
Etymology. The Greek βουγονία (bougoníā) comes from βοῦς (boûs), meaning 'ox', and γονή (gonḗ), meaning 'progeny'.
The myth of Bugonia is an ancient folk belief, originating in the Mediterranean region, that bees spontaneously generate from the carcass of a dead ox or cow. This belief led to a ritual practice of killing a bull and enclosing its carcass in a special house, where it was believed bees would eventually emerge from the decaying flesh.
This is scientifically known as spontaneous generation, that life can materialise from inorganic matter, aka in this case the carcass of a dead lion.
In 1668 the Italian physician and parasitologist Francesco Redi challenged this idea. He placed meat in a variety of sealed, open, and partially covered containers. The meat in the open jar developed maggots, the one sealed didn’t and the one partially covered with cloth had maggots appear on the cloth. This resulted in an English theologian of the time, John Ray in 1671, stating in a speech to the Royal Society of London that spontaneous generation of insects is ‘unlikely’.
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Illustration of Redi's 1668 experiment to refute spontaneous generation: credit Amitchell125
Further evidence came from Louis Pasteur’s experiments in the mid-19th century using swan-neck flasks, see below. He boiled nutrient broth in flasks to sterilise them - if left exposed to the elements they became contaminated, if sealed with a cotton bud they remained sterile. He also used flasks with curved necks which allowed air in but trapped dust and microbes, thus preventing microbes from reaching the broth and again they remained sterile. However, when the neck was broken it quickly spoiled demonstrating microbial growth. Louis through this experiment showed that microorganisms come from airborne particles, not the air itself.
The Logo
The Treacle logo held the Guinness world record for the longest running brand packaging. This was a 140-year-old logo created in 1881, an idea of the founder Abram Lyle who was a business person with strong religious beliefs. The Tate and Lyle logo changed last year to now be a lion’s head and a single bee. Apparently, the image was considered morbid by shoppers of today, thus the change. The bible reference has also been dropped see the new logo below.
It is not clearly understood why this image or slogan was originally chosen; it could be that it signifies the company as strong or that the process of refining sweet syrup from bitter treacle is a parody on Samson’s riddle. Lyle would have been aware of the story about Samson and the riddle and no doubt had some influence on the company’s logo.
The Connection Between the Riddle and the Logo
The question is this: how did bees come to be associated with a lion in the first place?According to Samson's story, bees had produced honey within the carcass of the dead lion. Yet from a natural history perspective, that raises several interesting questions.
Bees are not scavengers. They are unlikely to be attracted to a rotting carcass, let alone use one as a source of food. Flies, on the other hand, are a different matter entirely. Many species are remarkably adept at locating carrion, sometimes from considerable distances. A dead lion would certainly attract flies looking to lay their eggs.
Once the flies' eggs are laid, maggots hatch and feed on the rotting carcass. Around the world maggots are often eaten as a source of protein. Could this have been the wedding gift?
A couple of months ago I had a dead mouse in the garden. It was covered in wasps feasting on the dead carcass. They had switched from swarming and feeding on the nectar of the fennel plant close by, to feasting on a carcass in the lawn. Wasps are opportunistic scavengers and will feed on rotting meat to extract protein for their larvae back at the nest. Could this be the potential swarm?
Another theory suggested that the bees might have been mistaken for a Common Dronefly, a bee mimic. I have mentioned in my recent article that Droneflies do lek, but this is often around a yellow flower not a yellow rotting lion. They are a fly and do lay their eggs in areas where the larva can feast on decomposing matter. But I have never seen them a) attracted to a carcass or b) lay their eggs in the rotting flesh of dead animal. They certainly do not produce honey either way.
The last suggestion is that the bees might have used the skeleton, probably the rib cage, as the basis for a hive. I have seen wild bees in trees but never seen or heard of them using a skeleton of a beast to build their honeycomb.
If you have seen this please do let me know in the comments below.
In conclusion I don’t know the answer to the riddle either –
Its plausible and more likely they were flies or wasps rather than bees that were swarming –
Its plausible it might have been a protein gift of maggots that were offered as a wedding gift rather than honey –
Its plausible it that wild bees might have taken up residence in the clean carcass of a lion’s ribcage.
I will let you decide what the answer to the riddle is….. let me know below which you favour or if you have a theory of your own.
References:
The Marked Bible: Marshall, Morgan, and Scott: Edition 1963
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson%27s_riddle
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