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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 Excerpt: ... is celebrated as the slayer of the lion. The riddle concerning the honey in the carcass of the lion has proved a puzzle to all who still believe in literal inspiration. Bees will never make ... More

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 Excerpt: ... is celebrated as the slayer of the lion. The riddle concerning the honey in the carcass of the lion has proved a puzzle to all who still believe in literal inspiration. Bees will never make their habitation in dead animals and the form of the riddle indicates that the text has been greatly corrupted. The riddle is not a question but a statement--a positive proposition. It reads: "Out of the eater comes something to cat; And out of the sour1 one comes something sweet." And the answer is stated in the form of a question, thus: "What is sweeter than honey, and What is more sour1 than a lion?' It can only be regarded as a solution by doing violence to the meaning. The connection between the bee and the lion must have been known to the audience to whom the riddle was proposed, and so the very impossibility of the fact as a real event of life must have added to the interest of the solution. There is an ancient Mithraic plaque representing a lion with a bee in his mouth and the simple explanation of it may be nothing more nor less than that the bees produce honey in the lion, i. e., the month when the sun stands in the sign of Leo. Thus it would be quite plausible for an ancient riddle to propound the paradox, "When or where can honey be found in a lion?" And the answer, alluding to the deed of the sun-god, would be: "In the month of the slain lion." Accordingly the strange thing comes to pass that 1 "Sour" or "strong." 'The obverse of the medal shows Mithra between Castor and Pollux; above his head the raven and other Mithraic symbols. Underneath, the altar with the sacramental bread, the cup of the eucharist, the fish, the dove, etc. The reverse shows in the center a lion with a bee in his mouth. He is surr...

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