Meliss is still the Greek word for the honeybee, and it is true that its sting is a suicide weapon of last resort. If it should try to fly away after the barb has lodged in the pierced skin of its victim, a bee will tug out its own insides in the effort of freeing itself. The much less useful and diligent wasp has no such barb and can administer its sting as many times as it likes without danger to itself. But wasps, annoying as they are, never made selfish, hubristic demands of the gods.
Great Aunt Lillian raised bees. I’m highly allergic; she told me about the sting killing the bees. A form of self protective suicide (and trust me y’all: I’ve been there). She taught me how to just be still and let the bee “sniff” me out. According to her I was/am pretty but the bee would be able to tell I wasn’t a flower.
