Vergil’s Georgics, Books III and IV

<p>We wrap up our discussion of the <em>Georgics </em>with a lot of talk about the meaning of bees, bee-keeping, and the fact that bees sleep very peacefully at night because they do not have sex. How does this relate to the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice? If all your bees die at once, say of the plague, will slaughtering a bull bring them back? Are horse-flies a punishment for excessive human acquisitiveness? Do your humble pod-casters, who are not farmers, in addition to all the other things they are not, illuminate any of this fabulous poem’s mysteries, or do they only darken the already obscure? You will have to listen to find out.</p>