Bees in mythology

Bees have been featured in myth and folklore around the world. Honey and beeswax have been important resources for humans since at least the Mesolithic period, and as a result humans' relationship with bees—particularly honey bees—has ranged from encounters with wild bees (both prehistorically and in the present day) to keeping them agriculturally. Bees themselves are often characterized as magically imbued creatures and their honey as a divine gift. Bees hold a special status in some cultures: in Albanian and Lithuanian languages, the words employed to speak about a bee's death are the same as those for a human death and different from those for an animal death, underlining the sacredness of bees.