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ARISTAEUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 493 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ARISTAEUS , a divinity whose See also:

worship was widely spread throughout See also:ancient See also:Greece, but concerning whom the myths are somewhat obscure. The See also:account most generally received connects him specially with See also:Thessaly. See also:Apollo carried off from See also:Mount See also:Pelion the nymph See also:Cyrene, daughter or granddaughter of the See also:river-See also:god Peneus, and conveyed her to See also:Libya, where she gave See also:birth to Aristaeus. From this circumstance the See also:town of Cyrene took its name. The See also:child was at first handed over to the care of the See also:Hours, or the nymph Melissa and the centaur Cheiron. He afterwards See also:left Libya and went to See also:Thebes, where he received instruction from the See also:Muses in the arts of healing and prophecy, and married Autonoe, daughter of See also:Cadmus, by whom he had several See also:children, among others, the unfortunate See also:Actaeon. He is said to have visited See also:Ceos, where, by erecting a See also:temple to See also:Zeus Icmaeus (the giver of moisture), he freed the inhabitants from a terrible drought. The islanders worshipped him, and occasionally identified him with Zeus, calling him Zeus Aristaeus. After travelling through many of the See also:Aegean islands, through See also:Sicily, See also:Sardinia and Magna Graecia, everywhere conferring benefits and receiving divine honours, Aristaeus reached See also:Thrace, where he was initiated into the mysteries of See also:Dionysus, and finally disappeared near Mount Haemus. While in Thrace he is said to have caused the See also:death of See also:Eurydice, who was bitten by a snake while fleeing from him. Aristaeus was essentially a benevolent deity; he was worshipped as the first who introduced the cultivation of bees (See also:Virgil, Georg. iv. 315-558), and of the See also:vine and See also:olive; he was the See also:protector of herdsmen and hunters; he warded off the evil effects of the See also:dog-See also:star; he possessed the arts of healing and prophecy.

He was often identified with Zeus, Apollo and Dionysus. In ancient sculptures and coins he is represented as a See also:

young See also:man, habited like a shepherd, and sometimes carrying a See also:sheep on his shoulders. Coins of Ceos exhibit the See also:head of Aristaeus and Sirius in the See also:form of a dog crowned with rays. See also:Pindar, Pythia, ix. 5-65; See also:Apollonius Rhodius, schol. on ii. 498, 500; Diodorus, iv. 81.

End of Article: ARISTAEUS

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