It seems only natural that honeybees and godhood be intermixed in casual conversation. Honeybees after all seem to produce honey from thin air while building elegant structures to store it. They assist in the beautification and bounty of gardens around the world providing us with tasty treats for both palate and eye. It is no wonder that humans have mythologized gods to create them but also to be their guardian’s and protectors.
We know beekeeping is a very old profession, probably far older than the ones found in red-light districts.
In Valencia , Spain in the Cave of the Spider (Cueve de la Arana) situated on the river Cazunta a pre-historic drawing estimated to be about 8,000 years old was discovered showing a human figure robbing bees of their honey from a cave entrance. 
Although this is technically not “beekeeping” it demonstrates the first known effort by humans to harvest honey from a colony using a systematic approach.
Vines were dropped over the cliff edge, the honey gatherer climbed down with a satchel and proceeds to rob the bees of their honey comb and nutritious larva. It is very likely that these gatherers learned to use smoke to calm the bees rather than originally trying to just burn them out. These for-fathers/mothers would slowly lay down the foundation for what we know today. Although it was not until the 1840’s that Lorenzo Langthroth truly revolutionized beekeeping, the quest for learning how to manage them probably began in Gragnok son of Gragnoo’s brain when the bejeezus was stung out of him climbing a tree.
With the advent of writing and religion ideas about how we came to be and why things happen in the world around us began to be put down on papyrus or blocks of dried mud. The ancient Egyptians used Hieroglyphics to detail their mythology. The Egyptian sun-god Ra is said in one story to have shed tears and when they hit the earth turned into honeybees which began to gather honey for man. The honeybees being ruled by a single monarch also reinforced the top down governing approach characteristic to the Egyptians. The honeybee is often seen as a symbol for Egyptian royalty.
The ancient Greeks also had a place in their heart for deities and honeybees. Melisseus, was considered the spirit or patron saint of honey and beekeeping. He was part of a family of spirits known as the Kouretes whose mother was Gaia. These mini-gods lived in an impossible to reach area and learned much about the arts of animal husbandry which they would eventually share with the humans. The mother of Zeus, Rhea, hid her child from Kronos by leaving him in the care of the Kouretes. It was written that the infant Zues drank a mixture of honey and milk.
In Hindu mythology honeybees serve as the bowstring of their Cupid equivalent, Kamadeva. Striding atop his 8 foot tall parrot he shoots the five tipped flower of desire into the hearts of his victim. I think a Monty Python sketch was done about him.
In the Judeo tradition, the Israelite’s swath of death and destruction through the Promised Land, was written to flow with milk and honey. However because they angered Yahweh it became the land of “curds and honey” but at least not the land of “you know what and honey.” I did find one instance where the Bible gave sound advice about honey as stated here. “Have you found honey? Eat only as much as you need, lest you be filled with it and vomit” (Prov 25:16)
The Christian tradition has their own patron saint with St. Gobnait protector of bees and Irish beekeepers. One of her claims to fame is routing an army by loosing her honeybees upon them.
The Mayans also had their own bee-god named, Ah Muzen Cab. Not much is known about him except that he might have looked like this.
I think it is safe to say that the honeybee’s place in the pantheon of all of these cultures is primarily attributed to their usefulness to humans. If instead they simply destroyed your homes like termites or rolled balls of crap down the trail there would not be a deity advocating this insect’s health and prosperity.
The honeybee represents so much more to humanity than their simple production of honey. As a symbol it represents hard work, its hive hierarchy denotes supreme organization, and its comb structure, elegant design with maximum efficiency.
Gods save the honeybee!
