On golden bees...

[readsintrees.livejournal.com]

So, let me just say that this community has completely upped my obsession with The Queen's Thief. It is so much easier to go nuts over a lesser known trilogy when you get to discuss it with other people.

That said, my recent increase in obsessive behavior has led me to find and buy these on eBay:



Sure, they're not exactly how I pictured them, but they're GOLDEN BEE EARRINGS!! *gives obsessive fangirl squeak of ecstasy*

(Note, they cost me $13.50. They're gold plated and MUCH shinier in person than that pic implies)

Anyway, the point of this post wasn't to geek out over earrings. I wanted to discuss the potential symbolism of the golden bees.

Am I the only one that wonders what it was that made MWT give Attolia golden bee earrings that are mentioned several times throughout QoA? She could have easily said that Attolia had to barter her jewelry and then gain them back without mentioning anything specific....but she didn't. She specifically mentioned the bee earrings.

Traditionally, bees stand for many different things. Bees often symbolize working hard, for being a community, for wealth, abundance. They even stood for chastity and purity because it used to be believed that bees were just born spontaneously. Some ancient cultures had bees representing the afterlife and resurrection.

So what exactly is the symbolism behind Attolia owning bee earrings?

My guess is that one of the most common meanings for bees is the one that applies most to Attolia. Bees were frequently symbols of monarchy, of ruling, of being royalty. This stems from the fact that in a bee hive there is a single queen bee that was viewed as ruling over all others in the hive (we now know that the queen bee is more of a factory than a ruler, but we'll overlook this for the sake of the symbolism). Could queen bee be representative of Attolia?

Think of when the bee earrings come into play. They're mentioned when she uses them as bribes to gain control of her country (becoming the queen), and they're mentioned again when she stabilizes herself as a ruler and buys back her old jewelry (finally being the absolute monarch). They seem to be her favorite item of jewelry, and I wonder if this is symbolic of her showing off that like a queen bee, she is the sole ruler of her country.

Ah...but when does she turn away from her golden bees? When she waves them away in favor of Eugenides' ruby earrings. She passes up on the bee earrings when she finally resigns herself to marrying and ruling alongside a king. I can't recall them being mentioned in KoA, so it's like she really did give up the bee earrings when she gave up being the lonely queen bee.

What do you think? Do the bee earrings represent Attolia when she is the solitary queen of her country? Something else?

Comments

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

Awwwww.

...is what I think. ^_^
I love that idea!

[(Anonymous)]

Hmm... I like your reasoning. The idea that the golden bees were symbolic not merely meaningless trinkets sounds like something Megan Whalen Turner would do. That's part of the reason why I love her work so much. There are secret meanings behind so many things that seem to be minuscule. One just has to notice them then figure them out.

[thelasteddis.livejournal.com]

I like that idea, very nice! It also mentioned that they were older than the monarchy - I always got the impression that they were the crown piece of the royal jewelry. That would also point towards what you said - and the change from them to the rubies was the choice to be herself, not just a monarch.
Nice earrings!
(I also have golden bee earrings - a gift from my maybe-boyfriend. Yay QT related jewelry!)

[readsintrees.livejournal.com]

Maybe boyfriend? Aw, *wink wink, nudge nudge* if he bought you earrings, it means he thinks you're ~special~. Sounds to me like a definite boyfriend.

[thelasteddis.livejournal.com]

Well, we both like each other a lot, but I'm fifteen, and we go to a really small school, so it would be a little weird to be an item. But it's kind of funny because we're the only two in the school who have read QT, so we can make funny little references and no one gets it but us. Such as the discussion of who we would dress up as when the next book comes out:
Him: "I was planning on being Gen, so I could use my costume from halloween."
Me: "I was thinking I could be Eddis. Maybe you could be Sophos instead?"
Him: "Or you could be Attolia."
(Much badly suppressed laughter)

[agentmaly.livejournal.com]

You know what? I think you're exactly right. And that's some really impressive interpretation. Also yet another amazing subtle thing on Megan's part.

[kulai-raito.livejournal.com]

Wow! You could have written an essay on that and I would totally agree to your interpretation. Nicely said. More reasons to adore the books. Everything is plan out with absolute precision.

[maccalla.livejournal.com]

I agree with you totally. And I admit it... I, too, squeed when I saw them.

I mean, golden bee earrings, how much cooler does it get.

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

ooooooooooooh
shiny

nice find!

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Fascinating stuff about bees and the earrings. There've been a couple of books I read recently that include bees and bee symbolism--McKinley's Chalice and The Secret Life of Bees. You make some great points.

[in-my-niteshirt.livejournal.com]

How clever of you to notice this symbolic detail! I love it! I love all of MWT's symbolism. I love that there's so much of it. And yes, it's fun to obsess and to have fellow obsessors, isn't it.
One thing that occurs to me about the queen bee: she gives herself over to the job entirely. Like you said, she's more of a factory. She's not allowed to be herself, or have other aspects to her. It goes hand in hand with the idea that Irene gives up her very name to be Attolia. It quite literally consumed her, well, until Gen comes along.

[coyul.livejournal.com]

Factory. It's all because she and Gen are going to have a million babies. >>;

[tencups-i-swear.livejournal.com]

ZOMG! SQUEE!
Those errings ROCK!!!!
hmm, I've never thought of tehm symbolized like that before but your right, it sounds correct! Awesome work! XD

[readsintrees.livejournal.com]

Oh, I meant to add in my post that there are more of thee earrings available...if anyone wanted some of their own...

[(Anonymous)]

Nice one! Someday someone should collate everything we've written here and write "The Annotated Queen's Thief." It seems like a new discovery of this type is made every week, though, so maybe we aren't ready yet!

[charlotteslibrary.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

That was me, Charlotte.

By the way, there is another convert who has just read the books--here's her blog--http://angieville.blogspot.com/2009/03/queen-of-attolia-by-megan-whalen-turner.html

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

What a great review, Charlotte. Thanks for sharing.

more reviews

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

and this one -

http://angieville.blogspot.com/2009/03/king-of-attolia-by-megan-whalen-turner.html

has Angie joined sounis yet?

[tearoha.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't tempt me!
Must...resist...massive...projects...

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

I was just looking through Thief last night and remembered this from p. 1: "...and I swore to myself and every god I knew that if I got out alive, I would never never never take any risks that were so abysmally stupid again."
And of course this from near the end: "I am a master of foolhardy plans."

Which led me to remember this post, because when Attolia wears Gen's earrings and thwarts the Mede, it's such a Gen-like, foolhardy plan full of abysmally stupid risks. What if he doesn't notice? What if he doesn't have time to tell the MoW?

One more reason why I love "Not those."

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

She was pretty forceful in the way she made him notice them.

I've always thought she was terribly desperate by that point, and not only desperate to save her country and shake the Medes. She could have gotten rid of the Medes in other ways, too, though it may have been harder once their army was planted in Attolia. But desperate to save Gen and choose him to be her husband. To see if just maybe there was some truth to his declaration of love.

[pigrescuer.livejournal.com]

Yes, doesn't she grab his chin and force him to look at her? Or is that another time?

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

She does. She grabs him by the hair and twists it, for heaven's sake. How could he *not* look at her?

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

But she's trusting that he's not so terrified of torture that he doesn't remember their earlier conversation. Admittedly that's less of a gamble. But there's the whole bit about the MoW and how hard he got kicked in the head and what Gen managed to whisper to him.

[sgwordy.livejournal.com]

What a great observation! Nice topic and I loved reading the discussion. I'm also re-reading QoA right now and am excited to add this idea to my reading.

[angieville.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

Hey there! I am definitely a new convert and have been lurking here the past couple days. What a great community.

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

Welcome! Yay you for finding the comm

:-)

[rose-amidlilies.livejournal.com]

I always just thought that MWT was putting in another aspect of ancient Greece, the Minoan or the Mycenaean (one of the pre-bronze age groups at least) archaeological site had golden bee earrings found in them...

[readsintrees.livejournal.com]

Right, they often used bees to symbolize the afterlife...hence them being found in gravesites. The whole death and afterlife link is because bees hibernate, so it seems like the whole hive dies, and then miraculously gets reborn every year.

[tiegirl.livejournal.com]

Man, you guys is smart!


At work someone brought up a "news" story that claimed bees were very intelligent, so now we always call each other "smart bees"...

[cherryblosomjen.livejournal.com]

I found your post very informative and iteresting. I've been meaning to pick reread QoA again. It always surprises me how many details people on Sounis are attune to, that I've completely missed. I remember the ruby earrings Gen gives Attolia, but I don't even slightly remember the golden bees.

Your delve into the symbolic parallels of a literal queen bee and Attolia are fascinating and on point.

I'm going to have to do a closer reading of the texts this time around. I think I just gorge them down. I can't stop reading, even if it means I'm digesting less. I get greedy wanting more and more--and usually end up costing myself a night of sleep because I couldn't go to bed without finishing. You'd think I hadn't read them five (six maybe?) times already over the years.