-overwrought, and I have no idea if any of it is true, but interesting:
"What we think of as the honeybee is technically the Western honeybee. Apis melifera. They are not native to North America; they were brought here by the Spaniards in the 17th century, by men who called honey 'liquid gold.' But eve the Spanish came late to honey. In a way almost impossible to understand in our over-sugared world, honey was the only sweet flavor most of the ancients knew, and they held it in awe. The Egyptians thought bees grew from the tears of Ra, ruler of the gods; and in India, Vishnu, who holds more or less the same job, was called 'honey born.' In Greece, bees led worthy pilgrims to the oracle at Delphi, and Aristotle believed that honey precipitated from the air when rainbows descended."
...mmm, I should go see if we have any killer bee honey left...