The bee and the swarm. A one-line axiom of the DOGMAsocial nature: the benefit of the part is inseparable from the benefit of the whole. What does not serve the good of the swarm (σμῆνος) is no good to the individual bee (μέλισσα) either — however it may seem to her. The governing discipline is action (the common good); the sustaining one is desire.

A mirror of the civic rule. This is the reverse, "negative" formulation of Med. 5.22 ("what does not harm the city does not harm the citizen") and of its positive pair "what benefits the swarm benefits the bee." The sense: an individual who seeks advantage against the whole deceives himself — outside the swarm the bee does not survive; outside the common the good of a human being is impossible. Selfish "benefit" at the expense of the whole is an illusion of benefit.

Parallels. DOGMAOikeiōsis; the image of cooperation and of the members of the body; Med. 5.22; 06-45 (what benefits one benefits others); 06-42 (all are fellow-workers in one task).