Bee-lletpoints about Honey in Ancient Greece

* Ambrosia and nectar, the food and drink of the Greek gods, were made of honey. Zeus "was raised on honey."

* The Iliad refers to honey as the food of kings.

* Legend has it that every day, doves would bring ambrosia to Zeus to give out amongst the other gods.

* Attic honey - honey from the region of Attica (not your attic), which includes Greek capital Athens - was especially known for its nutritional and medicinal value.

* Hippocrates ("the father of medicine") wrote, "Honey and pollen cause warmth, clean sores and ulcers, soften hard ulcers of lips, heal carbuncles and running sores."

* Other ancient physicians used honey to treat diarrhea, constipation, and coughs.

* Sometimes, ancient Greeks applied honey topically to prevent bodies from decaying.

* It also according to legend made humans immortal.

* Sugar was unknown to Greeks so honey was used as their natural sweetener.

* Oxymel, a moixture of water, honey, and vinegar, was a common medicinal drink in ancient Greece, used to treat what we now call the common cold.

* Fermented honey was believed to have preceded wine as a common entheogen -- that is, a psychoactive substance used in a religious, spiritual or otherwise ritualized context.

(honey-health.com; greekmedicine.net; livestrong.com; greekproducts.com; mythencyclopedia.com; heml.mta.ca; en.wikipedia.org)