A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

ARISTAEUS.
ARISTAEON. [ARISTAEUS.]
ARISTAEUS ('Aptircatos), an ancient divinity
worshipped in various parts of Greece, as in
Thessaly, Ceos, and Boeotia, but especially in
the islands of the Aegean, Ionian, and Adriatic
seas, which had once been inhabited by Pelasgians.
The different accounts about Aristaeus, who once
was a mortal, and ascended to the dignity of a god
through the benefits he had conferred upon mankind, seem to have arisen in different places and
independently of one another, so that they referred
to several distinct beings, who were subsequently
identified and united into one. He is described
either as a son of Uranus and Ge, or according to
a more general tradition, as the son of Apollo by
Cyrene, the grand-daughter of Peneius. Other,
but more local traditions, call his father Cheiron
or Carystus. (Diod. iv. 81, &c.; Apollon. Rhod.
iii. 500, &c. with the Schol.; Pind. Pytlh. ix. 45,
&c.) The stories about his youth are very marvellous, and shew him at once as the favourite of
the gods. His mother Cyrene had been carried
off by Apollo from mount Pelion, where he found
her boldly fighting with a lion, to Libya, where
Cyrene was named after her, and where she gave
"birth to Aristaeus. After he had grown up, Aristaeus went to Thebes in Boeotia, where he learned
from Cheiron and the muses the arts of healing
and prophecy. According to some statements he
married Autonoe, the daughter of Cadmus, who
bore him several sons, Charmus, Calaicarpus, Actaeon, and Polydorus. (Hesiod. Theog. 975.)
After the unfortunate death of his son Actaeon, he
left Thebes and went to Ceos, whose inhabitants
he delivered from a destructive drought, by erecting
an altar to Zeus Icmaeus. This gave rise to an
identification of Aristaeus with Zeus in Ceos.
From thence he returned to Libya, where his
mother prepared for him a fleet, with which he
sailed to Sicily, visited several islands of the
Mediterranean, and for a time ruled over Sardinia. From these islands his worship spread
over Magna Graecia and other Greek colonies.
At last he went to Thrace, where he became initiated in the mysteries of Dionysus, and after
having dwelled for some time near mount Haemus,
where he founded the town of Aristaeon, he disappeared. (Comp. Paus. x. 17. ~ 3.) Aristaeus
is one of the most beneficent divinities in ancient
mythology: he was worshipped as the protector of
flocks and shepherds, of vine and olive plantations;
he taught men to hunt and keep bees, and averted
from the fields the burning heat of the sun and
other causes of destruction; he was a aEdS vo'lcLos,
dypevs, and daAEoTrip. The benefits which he conferred upon man, differed in different places according to their especial wants: Ceos, which was
much exposed to heat and droughts, received
through him rain and refreshing winds; in Thessaly and Arcadia he was the protector of the flocks
and bees. (Virg. Georg. i. 14, iv. 283, 317.)
Justin (xiii. 7) throws everything into confusion
by describing Nomios and Agreus, which are only
surnames of Aristaeus, as his brothers. Respecting the representations of this divinity on ancient
coins, see Rasche, Lex. Numism. i. 1. p. 1100, and
respecting his worship in general Brindsted,
Reisen, <c. in Griech. i. p. 40, &c. [L. S.]
ARISTAEUS, the original name according to
Justin (xiii. 7) of Battus, the founder of Cyrene.
[BATT US.]

ARISTAGORAS. 289
ARISTAEUS ('AplurraTos), the son of Damophon, of Croton, a Pythagoraean philosopher, who
succeeded Pythagoras as head of the school, and
married his widow Theano. (Iambl. c. 36.) He
was the author of several mathematical works,
which Euclid used. (Pappus, lib. vii. 1Mathtem.
Coll. init.) Stobaeus has given (Ecl. i. 6, p.
429, ed. Heeren) an extract from a work on
Harmony (ncpl 'Appeovras), by Aristaeon, who
may be the same as this Aristaeus. (Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. i. p. 836.)
ARISTAEUS. [ARISTEAS.]
ARISTA'GORA ('Apur-rayopa). 1. An
hetaira, the mistress of the orator Hyperides,
against whom he afterwards delivered two orations.
(Athen. xiii. pp. 590, d. 586, a. 587, d. 588, c.;
Harpocrat. s. v. 'A<Pdat.)
2. A Corinthian hetaira, the mistress of Demetrius, the grandson of Demetrius Phalereus.
(Athen. iv. p. 167, d. e.)
ARISTA'GORAS ('Apioaydpas), of Miletus,
brother-in-law and cousin of Histiaeus, was left by
him, on his occupation of Myrcinus and during his
stay at the Persian court, in charge of the government of Miletus. His misconduct in this situation
caused the first interruption of an interval of universal peace, and commenced the chain of events
which raised Greece to the level of Persia. In 501
B. c., tempted by the prospect of making Naxos
his dependency, he obtained a force for its reduction from the neighbouring satrap, Artaphernes.
While leading it he quarrelled with its commander;
the Persian in revenge sent warning to Naxos, and
the project failed. Aristagoras finding his treasure
wasted, and himself embarrassed through the failure
of his promises to Artaphernes, began to meditate
a general revolt of Ionia. A message from Histiaeus determined him. His first step was to seize
the several tyrants who were still with the armament, deliver them up to their subjects, and proclaim democracy; himself too, professedly, surrendering his power. He then set sail for Greece, and
applied for succours, first at Sparta; but after using
every engine in his power to win Cleomenes, the
king, he was ordered to depart: at Athens he was
better received; and with the troops from twenty
galleys which he there obtained, and five added by
the Eretrians, he sent, in 499, an army up the
country, which captured and burnt Sardis, but was
finally chased back to the coast. These allies now
departed; the Persian commanders were reducing
the maritime towns; Aristagoras, in trepidation
and despondency, proposed to his friends to migrate to Sardinia or Myrcinus. This course he
was bent upon himself; and leaving the Asiatic
Greeks to allay as they could, the storm he had
raised, he fled with all who would join him to
Myrcinus. Shortly after, probably in 497, while
attacking a town of the neighbouring Edonians, he
was cut off with his forces by a sally of the besieged. He seems to have been a supple and eloquent man, ready to venture on the boldest steps,
as means for mere personal ends, but utterly lacking in address to use them at the right moment;
and generally weak, inefficient, and cowardly.
(Herod. v. 30-38, 49-51, 97-100, 124-126;
Thuc. iv. 102.) [A. H. C.]
ARISTA'GORAS ('Api'rrayo'pas). 1. Tyrant
of Cuma, son of Heracleides, one of the Ionian
chiefs left by Dareius to guard the bridge over the
Danube. On the revolt of the lonians from Peril