[Sca-cooks] weird question - honey fast???

Lady Celia CeliadesArchier at cox.net
Tue Aug 12 16:06:55 PDT 2008


Terry Decker wrote:
>>
> Aristotle, Pliny and Dioscorides refer to bees as animals, IIRC.  
> Their works contain a number of very solid observations and a number 
> of errors of interpretation.  The probability that Medieval Europeans 
> did not consider bees animals is rather low in my opinion.
>
> Bear
>

And Lainie replied:
>>I found that in most of the bestiaries, bees are grouped with birds. >>The
bestiaries are not known for accuracy, however. ;-)

Then it seems to me, who knows little to nothing about medieval Lenten fast
restrictions as a whole, that based on this, groups who prohibited fowl and
eggs, if they concurred with the bestiaries and grouped bees with birds,
would also prohibit honey.  Those which did not prohibit fowl and eggs,
might not prohibit honey. 

Has anyone ever considered the fact that "milk and honey", being considered
religiously luxury foods, might be restricted simply for that reason during
the Lenten fast as well? 

Just curious, 
Celia. Who is more familiar with the symbolism behind Lenten fasts from a
modern viewpoint, than from the reasons behind the prohibitions in medieval
times.




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