It is impossible to relate in full detail all
the methods of production and storage practised by
ants, but it would be careless to omit them entirely.
Nature has, in fact, nowhere else so small a mirror of
greater and nobler enterprises. Just as you may see
greater things reflected in a drop of clear water, so
among ants there exists the delineation of every
virtue.
Love and affection are found,1
namely their social life. You may see, too, the reflection of courage in their persistence in hard labour.
2
There are many seeds of temperance and many of
prudence and justice. Now Cleanthes,
3 even though
he declared that animals are not endowed with
reason, says that he witnessed the following spectacle:
some ants came to a strange anthill carrying a dead
ant. Other ants then emerged from the hill and
seemed, as it were, to hold converse with the first
party and then went back again. This happened
[p. 371]
two or three times until at last they brought up a
grub to serve as the dead ant's ransom, whereupon
the first party picked up the grub, handed over the
corpse, and departed.
A matter obvious to everyone is the consideration
ants show when they meet : those that bear no load
always give way to those who have one and let them
pass.
4 Obvious also is the manner in which they
gnaw through and dismember things that are difficult
to carry or to convey past an obstacle, in order that
they may make easy loads for several. And Aratus
5
takes it to be a sign of rainy weather when they spread
out their eggs and cool them in the open:
When from their hollow nest the ants in haste
Bring up their eggs;
and some do not write ‘eggs’ here, but ‘provisions,’
6
in the sense of stored grain which, when they notice
that it is growing mildewed and fear that it may
decay and spoil, they bring up to the surface. But
what goes beyond any other conception of their
intelligence is their anticipation of the germination
of wheat. You know, of course, that wheat does not
remain permanently dry and stable, but expands
and lactifies in the process of germination. In order,
then, to keep it from running to seed and losing its
value as food, and to keep it permanently edible,
the ants eat out the germ from which springs the
new shoot of wheat.
7
[p. 373]
I do not approve of those who, to make a complete
study of anthills, inspect them, as it were, anatomically. But, be that as it may, they report that the
passage leading downward from the opening is not
at all straight or easy for any other creature to traverse; it passes through turns and twists
8 with
branching tunnels and connecting galleries and terminates in three hollow cavities. One of these is
their common dwelling-place, another serves as
storeroom for provisions, while in the third they
deposit the dying.
9
