Aristaeus

Aristaeus (

"Aristaios" ("the best") is an epithet rather than a name:

For some men to call Zeus and holy Apollo.
Agreus and Nomios,^[7] and for others Aristaios (Pindar)

Patronage

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Thanks to a vast

• From his father, Apollo, the wise Centaur,
  herblore (similarly like his half-brother, Asclepius
  ).
• From his aunt,
  Leather making), as well as the use of nets and traps
  in hunting.
• From the
  keep them in hives (the bees either belonging to the Myrtle nymphs themselves or the Thriae), to harness supplies of honey and beeswax, etc.^[8]; how to tame and cultivate the wild oleaster in order to make it bear olives and how to process them into olive oil (like his aunt, Athena); as such, Aristaeus is a protector of olive trees, of olive orchards/plantations, olive cultivation
  and of olive oil presses (whereas Athena is the goddess of olives, of olive oil and of olive-oil-making).
• Like his father, Apollo, his mother, Cyrene (a huntress and a shepherdess), his uncle, Hermes, and his cousin(?), Pan, Aristaeus is also a patron god and a protector of shepherds/herders and of herding, patron of the art of Sheep shearing, as well as the patron god of pastoralism; of the cattle and their herds and flocks, and protector of pastures.
• From his uncle,
  grapevines and of vineyards, and of viticulture
  , while Dionysus is the god of wine and of wine-making.
• From his great-aunt,
  orchards
  , etc.
• Aristaeus—along with
  husbandry & agriculture, and of the arts of food preservation (fermenting, pickling, brining, curing, smoking and drying
  of foodstuffs).
• From his aunt,
  ropemaking, net-making and basket weaving (see also, Wattle (construction) and Wattle and daub
  ).
• From his great-uncle, Poseidon, Aristaeus learned the skills of fishing, with net and hooks, etc.
• From his uncle,
  ceramics, etc.) and wood (woodworking
  , etc.), etc.
• In
  Ceos, Aristaeus is also a god of the Etesian winds, which provided some respite from the intense heat of their scorching, drought-causing midsummers weather/climate.^[9]

According to Pherecydes, Aristaeus fathered Hecate, goddess of witchcraft, crossroads, and the night.^[11] Hesiod's Theogony suggests her parents were Perses and Asteria.

Aristaeus in Ceos

Aristaeus' presence in Ceos, attested in the fourth and third centuries BC,

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 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 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.^[14] Aristaeus appears on Cean coins.^[15]

Then Aristaeus, on his civilizing mission, visited Arcadia, where the winged male figure who appears on ivory tablets in the sanctuary of

Soon after Aristaeus' inadvertent hand in the death of 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)—his bees became sickened and began to die. Seeking council, first from his mother, Cyrene, and then from Proteus, Aristaeus learns that the bees' death was a punishment for causing the death of Eurydice, from her sisters, the Auloniad nymphes. To make amends, 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 3-days later. He followed these instructions, establishing sacrificial alters before a fountain, as advised, sacrificed the aforementioned cattle, and left their carcasses. Upon returning 3-days later, Aristaeus found within one of the carcasses new swarms of bees, which he took back to his apiary. The bees were never again troubled by disease.^[8]

A variation of this tale was told in the 2002 novel by Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees.^[17]

"Aristaeus" as a name

In later times, Aristaios was a familiar Greek name, borne by several archons of Athens and attested in inscriptions.^[18]

See also

• The Thriae, Ancient Greek goddesses of bees
• Bee (mythology)
  , Bees in mythology
• USS Aristaeus (ARB-1)
• Fu Xi, an important culture hero from the Chinese mythology
  who bears some strong resemblances to Aristaios as a teacher of mortals
• Aegipan
• Pan (god)

References