Aristaeus

The myrtle-nymphs took charge of Aristaeus on the hills near Cyrene. They were children of Hermes. They gave him the names Agreus and Nomius and taught him hunting and the rural arts. He learned to curdle milk for cheese, build bee-hives, and make the wild oleaster produce the cultivated olive. Aristaeus later passed these skills to others, who paid him divine honours in gratitude.

Aristaeus was the son of Apollo and Cyrene. Apollo had promised Cyrene a long life devoted to hunting and rule over a fertile country. When Aristaeus had grown, Apollo led him to the cave of Cheiron, where he received instruction in certain mysteries. Some traditions name Cheiron himself as one of his teachers. The Muses later arranged Aristaeus’s marriage to Autonoé. They had a son, Actaeon.

Aristaeus travelled from Libya to Boeotia and later settled at Tempe. There, all his bees died. He went to a deep pool in the river Peneius, where Cyrene was staying with her Naiad sisters. Arethusa heard his cry through the water, recognised him, and invited him into the Naiads’ palace. The Naiads washed him with water from a perpetual spring and gave him a sacrificial feast. Cyrene then told him to bind her cousin Proteus and force him to explain why the bees had sickened.

Aristaeus followed her instructions and carried out the required rites. On the ninth morning, a swarm of bees rose from the rotting carcasses and settled on a tree. He captured the swarm and placed it in a hive. The Arcadians honoured him as Zeus because he had taught them to raise new swarms of bees.