# Aristaeus

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{{short description|God of rural crafts in Greek mythology}}
{{other uses|Aristaeus (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox deity
| type             = Greek
| name             = Aristaeus
| image            = Aristaeus Bosio Louvre LL51.jpg
| caption          = Aristaeus by [François Joseph Bosio](/source/Fran%C3%A7ois_Joseph_Bosio) (1768–1845), ([Musée du Louvre](/source/Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre))
| deity_of         = 
| abode            = Libya
| symbol           =
| consort          = [Autonoë](/source/Autono%C3%AB_(daughter_of_Cadmus))
| parents          = [Apollo](/source/Apollo) and [Cyrene](/source/Cyrene_(mythology))
| siblings         =
| children         = [Actaeon](/source/Actaeon) and [Macris](/source/Macris)
| mount            =
| Roman_equivalent = 
}}
'''Aristaeus''' ({{IPAc-en|ær|ɪ|ˈ|s|t|iː|ə|s}}; {{langx|grc|Ἀρισταῖος|Aristaios}}) was the mythological [culture hero](/source/culture_hero) credited with the discovery of many rural [useful arts](/source/useful_arts) and [handicraft](/source/handicraft)s, including [beekeeping](/source/beekeeping).<ref>His inventions of apicultural apparatus, such as the linen gauze bee-keeper's mask and the technique of smoking the hive, were elaborated by [Nonnus](/source/Nonnus) in his ''[Dionysiaca](/source/Dionysiaca)''. V.214ff.</ref> He was the son of the huntress [Cyrene](/source/Cyrene_(mythology)) and [Apollo](/source/Apollo).

''Aristaeus'' ("the best") was a cult title in many places: [Boeotia](/source/Boeotia), [Arcadia](/source/Arcadia_(ancient_region)), [Ceos](/source/Kea_(island)), [Sicily](/source/Sicily), [Sardinia](/source/Sardinia), [Thessaly](/source/Thessaly), and [Macedonia](/source/Macedonia_(Greece)); consequently a set of "travels" was imposed, connecting his [epiphanies](/source/Epiphany_(Ancient_Greece)) in order to account for these widespread manifestations.

If Aristaeus was a minor figure at Athens, he was more prominent in [Boeotia](/source/Boeotia), where he was "the pastoral Apollo",<ref>An expression credited to [Hesiod](/source/Hesiod) in [Servius](/source/Maurus_Servius_Honoratus)' commentary on Virgil's ''[Georgics](/source/Georgics)'', I.14; cf. William J. Slater, ''Lexicon to Pindar'' (Berlin: de Gruyter) 1969, ''s.v.'' ""Nomios". When "pastoral Apollo" appears in lines of [Theocritus](/source/Theocritus) (''Idyll'' XXV) and [Callimachus](/source/Callimachus) (''Ode to Apollo'', 47) the expression blurs the effective domaines of the two figures.</ref> and was linked to the [founding myth](/source/founding_myth) of [Thebes](/source/Thebes_(Greece)) by marriage with [Autonoë](/source/Autono%C3%AB_(daughter_of_Cadmus)), daughter of [Cadmus](/source/Cadmus), the founder.<ref>Hesiod, ''[Theogony](/source/Theogony)'' 977.</ref> Aristaeus may appear as a winged youth in painted Boeotian pottery,<ref>As on a Boeotian tripod-kothon at the [Metropolitan Museum of Art](/source/Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art), illustrated and discussed in Brian F. Cook, "Aristaios" ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'' New Series, '''21'''.1 (Summer 1962), pp. 31-36; there Aristaeus hastens with a mattock and a one-handled amphora, which Cook interprets as filled with seed-corn.</ref> similar to representations of the [Boreads](/source/Boreads), spirits of the North Wind. Besides [Actaeon](/source/Actaeon) and [Macris](/source/Macris), he also was said to have fathered [Charmus](/source/Charmus) and Callicarpus in [Sardinia](/source/Sardinia).<ref>[Diodorus Siculus](/source/Diodorus_Siculus). ''[Bibliotheca Historica](/source/Bibliotheca_historica), Book 4.82.4''</ref>

== Mythological accounts ==

=== Pindar's account ===
According to [Pindar](/source/Pindar)'s ninth Pythian Ode and Apollonius' ''[Argonautica](/source/Argonautica)'' (II.522ff), Cyrene despised spinning and other womanly arts and instead spent her days hunting and [shepherd](/source/shepherd)ing, but, in a prophecy he put in the mouth of the wise [centaur](/source/centaur) [Chiron](/source/Chiron), Apollo would spirit her to [Libya](/source/Ancient_Libya) and make her the foundress of a great city, [Cyrene](/source/Cyrene%2C_Libya), in a fertile coastal plain.<ref>Thus Pindar set into a mythological past a prophecy of the comparatively recent founding of Cyrene (630 BCE).</ref> When Aristaeus was born, according to what Pindar sang, [Hermes](/source/Hermes) took him to be raised on [nectar](/source/nectar) and [ambrosia](/source/ambrosia) and to be made immortal by [Gaia](/source/Gaia_(mythology)).

"Aristaios" ("the best") is an [epithet](/source/epithet) rather than a name:<blockquote>For some men to call [Zeus](/source/Zeus) and holy [Apollo](/source/Apollo).<br>Agreus and Nomios,<ref>[Agreus](/source/Agreus) ("hunter") and [Nomios](/source/Agreus) ("shepherd") are sometimes given distinct identities among the [Panes](/source/Pan_(mythology)), sons of Pan.</ref> and for others Aristaios ([Pindar](/source/Pindar))</blockquote>

=== Diodorus Siculus' account ===
According to [Diodorus Siculus](/source/Diodorus_Siculus)’ ''Library'' Aristaeus was born in Libya and nurtured by Nymphs who gave him the added names Nomius and Agreus and taught him to curdle mild, make bee hives and cultivate olive-trees, which he subsequently taught to humans. As an adult Aristeus went to [Boeotia](/source/Boeotia) and married [Autonoe](/source/Autono%C3%AB_(daughter_of_Cadmus)), daughter of [Cadmus](/source/Cadmus), who bore their son [Actaeon](/source/Actaeon). <ref name=":2">Diodorus ''Siculus'', Library [https://topostext.org/work/133#4.81.1 4.81.1-4.82.5]</ref>

After Acteon’s death at the hand of [Artemis](/source/Artemis), Aristaeus visisted the oracle of his father and was told to move to the island of [Ceos](/source/Kea_(island)). Upon arrival Aristeus successfully stopped a plague by offering a sacrifice in the name of all Greeks and left unnamed descendants on the island. After returning to Libya he travelled to the island of [Sardinia](/source/Sardinia) with the help of his mother where he cultivated the former barren land. He proceeded to visit multiple different places, namely [Sicily](/source/Sicily), where he was especially honored and [Thrace](/source/Thrace) where [Dionysus](/source/Dionysus) initiated him into his secret rites. Finally he settled on [Mount Haemus](/source/Balkan_Mountains) in northern Thrace and from which point on he ceased appearing to mortals and was revered as a god by both Greek and non-Greek peoples. <ref name=":2" />

=== In Virgil's Georgics ===
Soon after Aristaeus' inadvertent hand in the death of [Eurydice](/source/Eurydice)—whose husband, Orpheus, in one version, is Aristaeus' own half-brother, via Apollo (another version says that her husband, Orpheus, was fathered by [Oeagrus](/source/Oeagrus))—his bees became sickened and began to die.  Seeking counsel, first from his mother, Cyrene, and then from [Proteus](/source/Proteus), Aristaeus learns that the bees' death was a punishment for causing the death of Eurydice, from her [nymph](/source/nymph) sisters. To [make amends](/source/Propitiation), Aristaeus needed to sacrifice 12 animals (or four bulls and four cows) to the gods, and in memory of Eurydice, leave the carcasses in the place of sacrifice, and to return three days later. He followed these instructions, establishing sacrificial altars before a fountain, as advised, sacrificed the aforementioned cattle, and left their carcasses.  Upon returning there days later, Aristaeus found within one of the carcasses new swarms of bees, which he took back to his [apiary](/source/apiary). The bees were never again troubled by disease.<ref name=":0" />

A variation of this tale was told in the 2002 novel by [Sue Monk Kidd](/source/Sue_Monk_Kidd), ''[The Secret Life of Bees](/source/The_Secret_Life_of_Bees_(novel))''.<ref>''The Secret Life of Bees'', Kidd, p. 206</ref>

==Patronage==
{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2024}}
Aristaeus is the patron god of numerous rustic activities, which he learnt from various teachers:
* From [Chiron](/source/Chiron), the [Muses](/source/Muses), and his father Apollo, Aristaeus learned the arts of prophecy, healing and [herblore](/source/herblore). As such, he presided over [physic garden](/source/physic_garden)s.{{cn|date=October 2024}}  
* From [Artemis](/source/Artemis) and his mother, Cyrene, Aristaeus learned how to track, hunt, and trap animals, how to [dress](/source/Field_dressing_(hunting)) and prepare their meat and skins, and how to use nets and traps.{{cn|date=October 2024}}
* From the [Thessalian](/source/Thessaly) [nymph](/source/nymph)s who raised him, Aristaeus learned other useful arts and mysteries: dairying and how to prepare milk for cream, butter, [oxygala](/source/oxygala) and cheese; how to keep chickens for their eggs; how to tame bees and keep them in hives, and how to use honey and beeswax;<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=The Internet Classics Archive {{!}} The Georgics by Virgil |url=https://classics.mit.edu/Virgil/georgics.4.iv.html |access-date=2024-04-12 |website=classics.mit.edu}}</ref> how to tame and cultivate the wild [oleaster](/source/oleaster) in order to make it bear [olive](/source/olive)s and how to process them into [olive oil](/source/olive_oil). As such, Aristaeus is a protector of olive trees, of olive orchards, oliviculture and of olive oil presses.<ref>The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (2022, June 8). Aristaeus. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aristaeus</ref>
* Aristaeus is also a patron god of shepherds, herding, sheep shearing, and pastoralism, as well as cattle and pastures.{{cn|date=October 2024}}
* From [Dionysus](/source/Dionysus), Aristaeus learned how to produce alcoholic beverages such as [wine](/source/wine) and [mead](/source/mead). As such, he is worshipped as a protector of grapevines, vineyards, winepresses and of [viticulture](/source/viticulture).{{cn|date=October 2024}}
* From [Demeter](/source/Demeter), Aristaeus learned agriculture, [horticulture](/source/horticulture), [fungiculture](/source/fungiculture) and animal husbandry. As such, he was a protector of gardens, farms, fields, and orchards. Some versions also credit Demeter with teaching him leather-making.{{cn|date=October 2024}}
* Aristaeus is also a patron god of fruit trees, herbs, spices, edible flowers, fungi, as well as foraging, hunting, fishing, husbandry, agriculture, food preservation, and condiments.{{cn|date=October 2024}}
* From [Hestia](/source/Hestia), Aristaeus learned of cooking and baking. He presided over [quern-stone](/source/quern-stone)s, [gristmill](/source/gristmill)s, watermills, and ovens.{{cn|date=October 2024}}
* From [Poseidon](/source/Poseidon), Aristaeus learned fishing and spearfishing.{{cn|date=October 2024}}
* From [Athena](/source/Athena), Aristaeus learned to weave and to [card](/source/carding) and [hand-spin](/source/hand_spinning) fibres into wool and thread. He is the patron of ropemaking, net-making, basket weaving, and working clay and glass.{{cn|date=October 2024}}
* From [Hephaestus](/source/Hephaestus), Aristaeus learned how to work with metal, stone, clay, glass, and wood. He presides over clay [kiln](/source/kiln)s, [masonry oven](/source/masonry_oven)s, and charcoal piles.{{cn|date=October 2024}}
* In [Ceos](/source/Ceos), Aristaeus is a god of the [Etesian](/source/Etesian) winds.<ref name=":1" />

==Issue==
When he was grown, he sailed from Libya to [Boeotia](/source/Boeotia), where he was inducted into further mysteries in the cave of [Chiron](/source/Chiron) the centaur. In Boeotia, he was married to [Autonoë](/source/Autono%C3%AB_(daughter_of_Cadmus)) and became the father of the ill-fated [Actaeon](/source/Actaeon), who inherited the family passion for hunting, to his ruin,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pausanias' Description of Greece, Vol. II., by Pausanias—A Project Gutenberg eBook |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/68680/68680-h/68680-h.htm#CHAPTER_9_2 |access-date=2024-04-12 |website=www.gutenberg.org}}</ref> and of [Macris](/source/Macris), who nursed the child [Dionysus](/source/Dionysus).

According to Pherecydes, Aristaeus fathered [Hecate](/source/Hecate), goddess of witchcraft, crossroads, and the night.<ref>[Scholia](/source/Scholia)st on ''[Apollonius Rhodius](/source/Apollonius_of_Rhodes), [Argonautica](/source/Argonautica)'' 3.467</ref> [Hesiod](/source/Hesiod)'s ''[Theogony](/source/Theogony)'' suggests her parents were Perses and Asteria.

==Aristaeus in Ceos==
Aristaeus' presence in Ceos, attested in the fourth and third centuries BC,<ref>[Theophrastus](/source/Theophrastus), ''Of the winds'' 14, and other testimony noted in [Walter Burkert](/source/Walter_Burkert), ''Homo Necans'' (1972), translated by Peter Bing ((University of California Press) 1983), p. 109 note 1; Burkert notes that Aristaeus is already mentioned in a [Hesiod](/source/Hesiod)ic fragment.</ref> was attributed to a Delphic prophecy that counselled Aristaeus to sail to [Ceos](/source/Ceos), where he would be greatly honored. He found the islanders suffering from sickness under the stifling and baneful effects of the Dog-Star [Sirius](/source/Sirius) at its first appearance before the sun's rising, in early July. In the foundation legend of a specifically Cean weather-magic ritual, Aristaeus was credited with the double sacrifice that countered the deadly effects of the Dog-Star, a sacrifice at dawn to Zeus Ikmaios, "Rain-making Zeus" at a mountaintop altar,<ref>[Apollonius of Rhodes](/source/Apollonius_of_Rhodes), ''[Argonautica](/source/Argonautica)'' 2.521ff.</ref> following a pre-dawn [chthonic](/source/chthonic) sacrifice to Sirius, the Dog-Star, at its first annual appearance,<ref name=":1">Burkert 1983:109ff; Burkert notes an analogy to the polarity of sacrifices to Pelops and Zeus at Olympia.</ref> which brought the annual relief of the cooling [Etesian winds](/source/Etesian).

In a development that offered more immediate causality for the myth, Aristaeus discerned that the Ceans' troubles arose from murderers hiding in their midst, the killers of [Icarius](/source/Icarius) in fact. When the miscreants were found out and executed, and a shrine erected to Zeus Ikmaios, the great god was propitiated and decreed that henceforth, the [Etesian wind](/source/Etesian) should blow and cool all the Aegean for forty days from the baleful rising of Sirius, but the Ceans continued to propitiate the Dog-Star, just before its rising, just to be sure.<ref>Hyginus, ''Poetic Astronomy''</ref> Aristaeus appears on Cean coins.<ref>Charikleia Papageorgiadou-Banis, ''The Coinage of Kea'' (Paris) 1997.</ref>

Then Aristaeus, on his [civilizing mission](/source/civilizing_mission), visited [Arcadia](/source/Arcadia_(regional_unit)), where the winged male figure who appears on ivory tablets in the sanctuary of [Ortheia](/source/Ortheia) as the consort of the goddess, has been identified as Aristaeus by L. Marangou.<ref>Marangou, Aristaios" ''AM'' '''87'''72), pp77-83, noted by Jane Burr Carter, "The Masks of Ortheia" ''American Journal of Archaeology'' '''91'''.3 (July 1987:355-383) p. 382f.</ref>

Aristaeus settled for a time in the [Vale of Tempe](/source/Vale_of_Tempe). By the time of [Virgil](/source/Virgil)'s ''[Georgics](/source/Georgics)'', the myth has Aristaeus chasing [Eurydice](/source/Eurydice) when she was bitten by a [serpent](/source/Serpent_(symbolism)) and died.<ref name=":0" />

=="Aristaeus" as a name==
In later times, ''Aristaios'' was a familiar Greek name, borne by several [archon](/source/archon)s of Athens and attested in inscriptions.<ref>Eugene Vanderpool, "Two Inscriptions Near Athens", ''Hesperia'' '''14'''.2, The American Excavations in the Athenian Agora: Twenty-Sixth Report (April 1945), pp. 147-149; Susan I. Rotroff, "An Athenian Archon List of the Late Second Century after Christ" ''Hesperia'' '''44'''.4 (October 1975), pp. 402-408; Sterling Dow, "Archons of the Period after Sulla", ''Hesperia Supplements'' '''8''' Commemorative Studies in Honor of Theodore Leslie Shear (1949), pp. 116–125, 451, etc.</ref>

==See also==
{{Columns-list|colwidth=22em|
* {{annotated link|Ancient Greek cuisine}}
* {{annotated link|Agriculture in ancient Greece}}
* {{annotated link|Thriae}}, Ancient Greek goddesses of bees
* {{annotated link|Bee (mythology)}}; Bees in mythology
* {{annotated link|Pan (god)}}
* [Priapus](/source/Priapus), a mutual minor rustic god of livestock, fruit plants, gardens.  
* {{annotated link|Mellona}}, Ancient Roman bee goddess
* {{annotated link|Fu Xi}}, an important culture hero from the [Chinese mythology](/source/Chinese_mythology) who bears some strong resemblances to Aristaios as a teacher of mortals
}}

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{Greek mythology (deities)}}
{{subject bar |wikt=y |commons=y}}
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Category:Greek gods
Category:Agricultural gods
Category:Food deities
Category:Food gods
Category:Deities of wine and beer
Category:Beekeeping
Category:Animal gods
Category:Handicraft deities
Category:Greek mythological heroes
Category:Religion in ancient Boeotia
Category:Children of Apollo
Category:Kea (island)
Category:Hunting gods
Category:Deeds of Gaia
Category:Bees in religion
Category:Smithing gods
Category:Metalsmiths
Category:Health gods
Category:Mythological Greek medical doctors

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Aristaeus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristaeus) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristaeus?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.