Abstract: This article has a twofold purpose: to investigate the
symbolic richness and abundant sweetness of honey and to
employ ‘honey treatment’ as a strategy for reading the honeycombapocalypse
comprised in the Jewish legend of Joseph and Aseneth.
This text tells of Aseneth’s encounter with a heavenly figure, a
potent Joseph lookalike, who reveals to her inexpressible secrets
mediated in an exuberant honeycomb. The revelatory capacity of
honey is stylistically rendered by means of repetition, pleonasm,
chorus, reprises and gestures. The encounter with “Das ganz Andere”
does not leave Aseneth entirely perturbed and paralysed. In
fact, her free speech and wits remain as if protected by a honeysweetened
agency. The article emphasizes the necessity of a ‘conversion’
by the reader enabling him to grasp the sublime potential
of the aesthetics of sweetness.