ARISTAEUS (young pastoral worker and hunter)

When he reached manhood, the Muses provided him with a bride, Autonoe.^1,7 They were the parents of Actaeon, Macris, and Nysa, the latter of whom cared for the child Ammon brought.^7,2,8,9,10,5 Aristaeus owned fruit-plantations, a homestead, crops, and vines, and served as the keeper of the Muses' sheep. f:^11,1 He discovered the fatness of the olive and the works of bees, becoming the first to teach men these agricultural skills. f:^10,2 One tradition holds that he was the first to mix honey with wine, while others credit him with introducing olive-oil, the oil-press, and the use of honey. f:^12,13 He was described as the lord of honey and the first person to offer a sacrifice to Dionysus as a god. f:^14,10

Grieved by the fate of Actaeon and vexed with Boeotia and all of Greece, Aristaeus consulted his father Apollo's oracle. f:^15,16 Instructed by Apollo, he relocated his home from Phthia to the island of Ceos, where he gathered the Parrhasian people of Lycaon's lineage. f:^1,16 He offered sacrifices to Zeus son of Cronus and to the star Sirius on the mountains, an act that coincided with the star's rising and ended pestilential diseases. f:^1,16 During a plague, he offered a sacrifice in Ceos on behalf of all Greeks, and later spent time in Sicily displaying his benefactions to its inhabitants. f:¹⁶ He was summoned to ward off a pestilence in the Minoan Isles and learned useful knowledge from Dionysus during his stay in Thrace. f:^1,16

Though they failed to establish a city, they cultivated the previously waste land with plantings. f:^16,17 Before returning to Libya, he left descendants on the island of Ceos. f:¹⁶ After his bees were lost due to famine and disease, he stood weeping by the river Peneus and called out to his mother. f:^11,18 The river water formed a path that carried him to the deep river-bed, where he viewed the underground streams and his mother's watery kingdom with wonder. f:¹⁸ He entered his mother's stone-roofed chamber after the water parted, and was served dainties and wine by the nymphs. f:¹⁸

Confronting Proteus to ask for an oracle regarding his misfortunes, he leapt on the old man and bound him before he could rise. f:³ Claiming he came at the command of heaven, he forced Proteus to speak the fates of heaven through stubborn force. f:³ He possessed the ability to interpret the omens of flying birds and would serve as a helpful protector for flocks. f:^19,20 After his disappearance, Aristaeus received immortal honours and was honored with rites equal to those for gods by both barbarians and Greeks. f:^2,16 He became a seer who was sung of by men in the future, associated with a land where Kadmos tells Agave to go. f:^20,21