Aristaios

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Winged Aristaios with hoe and honey jar; Attic - black-figure Olpe by the Kerameikos painter , around 600 BC Chr.

Aristaios ( Greek Ἀρισταῖος, Latin Aristaeus ) is in Greek mythology the son of the god Apollo and the nymph Cyrene . He was a rural god of beekeeping, olive growing, sheep raising and hunting. Hence his two nicknames Agreus (Ἀγρεύς "hunter") and Nomios (Νόμιος "shepherd"). In addition, like his father, he was well versed in the art of healing and prophecy.

Life and legends

After the birth, Hermes brought the newborn to the Horen and Gaia , who dripped ambrosia on his lips, making him immortal, "as a pure Zeus and Apollo". He was brought up by the muses , whose flocks he looked after in Thessaly. They taught him the art of healing and prophecy. On the other hand, he learned honey extraction, the use of the olive tree and the production of sheep cheese from nymphs.

From his place of birth, Cyrene , Aristaios went to Thebes , where he became the husband of Autonoë , the daughter of Thebes king Kadmos . Her sons were Aktaion , Charmos and Callikarpos . Like his grandmother Cyrene, Aktaion was a passionate hunter and was torn to pieces by his own hunting dogs after arousing the wrath of the hunt goddess Artemis .

After the death of his son Aktaion, he was brought to the island by the inhabitants of Keos Island, who were suffering from a period of drought. He erected an altar there to Zeus Ikmaios ("moisture") and made sacrifices to this and the star Maira (Sirius), which caused the summer heat , whereupon the Etesia rose and softened the summer heat. On Keos, the Brisai nymphs taught him beekeeping and the production of olive oil. The keische hero Acontius came from the family of priests who then ran annually at the summit of the island Keos the rising of Sirius introduced by Aristaios victims.

Later Aristaios landed in Sardinia and Sicily , where he brought culture to people, hence he is also called culture bringer. Then Aristaios went to Thrace , where he fell in love with the nymph Eurydice , the wife of the singer Orpheus . This fled from his stalking and accidentally stepped on a snake, from whose bite it died. The sisters of Eurydice then let his bees die. On the advice of his mother Cyrene, he asked Proteus and found out the reason for the death of bees, whereupon he sacrificed four bulls and four heifers at Eurydice's grave and left them lying on his mother's advice. On the ninth day the rotting animals were full of bees. This legend shows that the ancient Greeks believed that bees could arise from decaying beef meat ( bougonia ).

It is said that the end of Aristaios disappeared at some point for no reason. It is said that he entered a cave and then disappeared forever to make people believe he was caught up in divinity.

Cult & Iconography

Aristaios was a god of the rural population and was especially venerated in Cyrene, Arcadia and the islands of Keos, probably also in Boeotia. In Sicily it was mainly the oil farmers who paid homage to him. He is often called as Apollon Aristaios, on Keos as Zeus Aristaios Ikmios. His surnames Agreus and Nomios could also be attributed to Apollo.

In archaic depictions he is shown as a winged youth with a hoe, oil or honey jug or a sack of grain. The wings are likely to allude to the legend of the Etesian winds, as the sons of the wind god Boreas are also shown winged.

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Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pindar: Pythian Ode 9
  2. ^ Brian F. Cook: Aristaios in: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Series, Vol. 21, No. 1 (1962), pp. 31-36

literature

Web links

Commons : Aristaios  - collection of images, videos and audio files