Human-Animal Transformation

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Golden plaques representing bee-women, dating to the VII century B.C. and now in the British Museum, London. The bees are sometimes associated with diverse goddesses and, according to some versions, was entrusted to them the task of nursing with their honey the child Zeus, concealed in a cave of the Mount Ida, on the island of Crete. A particular bond exists between Artemis and the bees, it seems, indeed, that the priestesses of the goddess who officiated in the sanctuary of Ephesus were called “bees”, in the same way of the girls that at Brauron participated in the initiation rites and were called “she-bears” (Ferguson, 1989, p. 52).

[Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plaque_bee-goddess_BM_GR1860.4-123.4.jpg]