Other Gods- Aristaeus

Aristaeus/Aristaios- god of bee keeping, honey, shepherds, cattle, fruit trees, husbandry and pastures.

He was the son of Apollo and Cyrene/Kyrene, either a daughter of King Hypseus of the Lapiths, or of the river god Peneus. Apollo abducted her when he saw her wrestling a lion or tending sheep and took her to North Africa where he found a city in her name. She gave birth to Aristaeus and Idmon, an Argonaut who was a seer, and sometimes said to be son to Asteria, daughter of Coronus.

Rarely he was said to be a son of Carystus/Karystos/Karustos a rustic god who was son of the centaur Chiron and the nymph Chariclo/Khariclo.

He was either taken by Apollo and given to Chiron to raise or he was taken by Hermes, given to the Horai and Gaia, raised on nectar and ambrosia and made immortal by Gaia.

The nymphs taught him how to curdle milk into cheese, how to tame bees and how to cultivate olive trees. The Muses taught him healing and prophecy, had him tend their flocks and found him a bride. He passed on his talents to humanity.

He was married to Cadmus/Kadmus and Harmonia's daughter Autonoë and with her had a son, Actaeon/Aktaion and a daughter, Macris. Actaeon was a hunter who spied Artemis bathing when he was hunting, as punishment she turned him into a deer and his own hounds tore him apart. In grief, Autonoe left her home in Thebes for Ereneia, where she died, and Aristaeus went to Ceos. Macris gave the newborn Dionysus honey when Hermes delivered him to her and as a result Hera exiled her. She fled to a small island and was helped by Demeter, who taught the residents how to grow cereal grain.

He also had the sons Kharmos and Kallikarpos.

Pherecydes says he was father to Hecate, though she is more popularly said to be the daughter of the Titans Perses and Asteria.

It was the Delphic oracle that advised Aristaeus to go to the island of Ceos, there the people were suffering from a sickness caused by the early rising of the dog star Sirius. Aristaeus ended it by sacrificing to Zeus or by discovering that the murderers of Icarius/Ikarios were amongst them and bringing them to justice. This was probably the same Icarius who was given wine by Dionysus in thanks for his hospitality only to be killed by shepherds he shared the wine with who thought he had poisoned them when they became drunk.

When his bees died his mother advised him to capture Proteus to find out how to restore them. He did so and the god told him to kill a bullock and inter its carcass. Alternatively this advice came from Arethusa, a Nereid.

Sometimes he was said to be foster father to Dionysus. He competed with Dionysus over whether honey or wine was better, the Olympians judged that wine was better. He fought the Indians with Dionysus.

Sometimes Eurydice was said to have been fleeing him rather than a satyr when she was bitten by a poisonous snake.

He seems to have been depicted as young, a bearded shepherd wearing a laurel wreath. He has no Roman counterpart.