Idyll 19

19. The Honey-Thief Love the thief was once stung cruelly by a bee

as he was robbing a honeycomb from the hives, and it pricked

all his fingertips. And he was in pain, and blew on his hand,

and stamped the ground and leapt, and to Aphrodite

he showed his hurt and complained that so small

a creature is the bee, and what great wounds it makes.

And his mother laughed: What of it? Are you not the bee's equal?

For you are small, yet what great wounds you make.