Aristaeus

Aristaeus was a minor god and hero in Greek mythology, the son of Apollo and the nymph Cyrene, honoured as a protector of flocks and as the one who taught men beekeeping, cheese-making and the cultivation of the olive. He married Autonoe, a daughter of Cadmus, and was the father of Actaeon. In Virgil’s Georgics he is the shepherd who lost his bees after Eurydice died.

Parents and Birth

Pindar tells how Apollo came upon Cyrene wrestling alone, without weapons, with a lion, and called Chiron out of his cave to marvel at her. Chiron replied that Apollo would bring her over the sea to Libya, where a city would be founded, and there she would bear a son. Hermes would carry the child to the Horae and Gaea, who would set nectar and ambrosia on his lips and make him immortal, to be called Zeus and holy Apollo, a joy to men and a guardian of flocks: “Agreus and Nomius, and others will call him Aristaeus” (Pindar, Pythian 9.26–65). Apollonius also makes Aristaeus the son of Apollo and Cyrene, who herded sheep on the marsh-meadow by the river Peneus until Apollo carried her off to Libya (Apollonius, Argonautica 2.500–510). Diodorus gives the same parents and says Cyrene was the daughter of Hypseus, son of Peneius (Diodorus 4.81.1).

Upbringing

Apollonius says that Apollo brought the infant to be raised in Chiron’s cave. When he grew up, the Muses gave him a wife, taught him healing and prophecy and made him the keeper of their sheep on the plain of Phthia (Argonautica 2.509–515). In Diodorus, Apollo gave the baby to the Nymphs to nurse; they named him Nomius, Aristaeus and Agreus and taught him how to curdle milk, build beehives and cultivate olive trees, which he was the first to teach to men. The people who benefited from his discoveries honoured him as a god (Diodorus 4.81.2–3). Apollonius also calls his daughter Macris the discoverer of bees’ work and of the olive (Argonautica 4.1131–1133).

Autonoe and Actaeon

Hesiod names Autonoe, a daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, as the wife of Aristaeus (Hesiod, Theogony 975–978), and Apollodorus agrees (Apollodorus, Library 3.4.2). Their son was Actaeon (Euripides, Bacchae 1227–1228). Euripides tells that Actaeon was torn to pieces by the hounds he had raised, after boasting that he was a better hunter than Artemis (Bacchae 337–340). According to Diodorus, Aristaeus then went to Apollo’s oracle and was told to move to the island of Ceos (Diodorus 4.82.1). Pausanias reports that Aristaeus, deeply grieved by the fate of Actaeon and vexed with Boeotia and all Greece, migrated to Sardinia (Pausanias 10.17.3).

Aristaeus and the Bees

In the fourth book of Virgil’s Georgics, the shepherd Aristaeus flees from Tempe after his bees die of sickness and hunger. He stands at the source of the river and complains to his mother Cyrene, who lives below the water among the nymphs. She invites him down, then tells him to seize the sea-god Proteus, who knows past, present and future, and to bind him until he tells the cause (Virgil, Georgics 4.315–396). Proteus says that Aristaeus is being punished by Orpheus: when Eurydice was fleeing from Aristaeus along the river, she stepped on a hidden snake and died, and the Dryads and Orpheus mourned her (Georgics 4.453–463). Cyrene then tells her son how to appease the nymphs: sacrifice four bulls and four heifers, leave their bodies in a grove, and nine days later offer poppies to Orpheus and sacrifice a black ewe and a calf to Eurydice. Aristaeus does so, and swarms of bees pour out of the rotting carcasses and settle in a tree (Georgics 4.528–558).

Ceos and the Dog Star

Apollonius says that when Sirius scorched the islands and the inhabitants could find no relief, they summoned Aristaeus at the bidding of Apollo. By his father’s command he left Phthia and settled in Ceos, gathered the Parrhasians there, built a great altar to Zeus Icmaeus and sacrificed to Sirius and to Zeus. For this reason, Apollonius adds, the Etesian winds cool the land for forty days, and the priests of Ceos still sacrifice before the rising of the Dog Star (Argonautica 2.516–527). Diodorus gives the same account, saying that the plague then raging throughout Greece ended after the sacrifice (Diodorus 4.82.2–3). In the story of Acontius and Cydippe, Callimachus speaks of the priests of Zeus Aristaeus on Ceos, whose task it is to calm stern Maera when she rises, and to ask Zeus for the winds, on the mountain tops (Callimachus, Aetia).

Later Travels and Honours

Diodorus reports that Aristaeus left descendants in Ceos, then returned to Libya, and sailed from there to Sardinia, where he settled, planted and cultivated the island. He later visited other islands and was honoured as a god in Sicily, especially by those who harvested the olive (Diodorus 4.82.4–5). Pausanias lists Aristaeus among the men who were changed into gods in earlier times and still receive honours (Pausanias 8.2.4), and Cicero mentions a statue of Aristaeus, son of Dionysus according to the Greeks and inventor of oil, standing with Liber (Dionysus) in his temple, which Verres had carried off (Cicero, Against Verres 2.4.128).

Aristaeus Sources

Pindar, Pythian 9.26–65; Hesiod, Theogony 975–978; Apollonius, Argonautica 2.500–527 and 4.1131–1133; Virgil, Georgics 4.315–558; Euripides, Bacchae 337–340 and 1227–1228; Apollodorus, Library 3.4.2; Diodorus 4.81–82; Pausanias 8.2.4 and 10.17.3; Cicero, Against Verres 2.4.128.

See Also: Apollo, Cyrene, Autonoe, Cadmus, Actaeon, Hermes, Gaea, Chiron, Orpheus, Eurydice, Proteus