Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/307

Rh ARISTAEUS. ARISTAEON. [Aristakus.] AlllSTAEUS (^Apia-Toios), an ancient divinity worshipped in various parts of Greece, as in Thessiily, 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 Aristtieus, who once was a mortal, and ascended to the dignity of a god through the benefits he had conferred upon man- kind, 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.; Find. Pi/th. ix. 45, &c.) The stories about his youth are very mar- vellous, and shew hira 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, Aris- taeus 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, Charraus, Calaicarpus, Ac- taeon, and Polydorus. (Hesiod. T/teog. 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 Sar- dinia. From these islands liis worship spread over Magna Graecia and other Greek colonies. At last he went to Thrace, where he became ini- tiated in the mysteries of Dionysus, and after having dwelled for some time near mount Haemus, where he founded the town of Aristaeon, he dis- appeared. (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 i&eos vofxios, dypfiis, and aAe|7jT7fp. The benefits which he con- ferred upon man, differed in different places ac- cording to their especial wants: Ceos, which was much exposed to heat and droughts, received through him rain and refreshing winds ; in Thes- saly and Arcadia he was the protector of the flocks and bees. (Virg, Geort;. 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. Respect- ing the representations of this divinity on ancient coins, see Rasche, Lex. Numism. i. 1. p. 1100, and respecting his worship in general Briindsted, lieisen, ^c in Griech. i. p. 40, &c. [L. S.] ARISTAEUS, the original name according to Justin (xiii. 7) of Battus, the founder of Cyrene. [Battl's.] ARISTAGORAS. 289 ARISTAEUS {'Api(TTa7os), the son of Damo- phon, of Croton, a Pythagoraean philosopher, who succeeded Pythagoras as head of the school, and married his widow Theano. (Iambi, c. 36.) He was the author of several mathematical works, which Euclid used. (Pappus, lib. vii. Matltem. Coll. init.) Stobaeus has given {Eel. i. 6, p. 429, ed. Heeren) an extract from a work on Harmony {Uepl 'Ap/xovias), by Aristaeon, who may be the same as this Aristaeus. (Fabric. liiljl. Graec. i. p. 836.) ARISTAEUS. [Aristeas.] ARISTA'GORA {'ApiaTuyopa). 1. An hetaira, the mistress of the orator Hyperidcs, against whom he afterwards delivered two orations. (Athen. xiii. pp. 590, d. 586, a. 587, d- 588, c. ; Harpocrat. s. v. 'Acpvai.) 2. A Corinthian hetaira, the mistress of Deme- trius, the grandson of Demetrius Phalereus. (Athen. iv. p. 167, d. e.) ARISTA'GORAS {'Api(TTay6f>as), 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 govern- ment of Miletus. His misconduct in this situation caused the first interruption of an interval of uni- versal peace, and commenced the chain of events which raised Greece to the level of Persia. In 50 1 B. c, tempted by tlie prospect of making Naxos his dependency, he obtained a force for its reduc- tion from the neighbouring satrap, Artaphemes. 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 His- tiaeus determined him. His first step was to seize the several tyrants who were still with the arma- ment, deliver them up to their subjects, and pro- claim democracy ; himself too, professedly, surren- dering his power. He then set sjiil 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 anny up the country, which captured and burnt Sardis, but was finally chased back to the coast. These allies now depai-ted ; the Persian commanders were reducing the maritime towns ; Aristagoras, in trepidation and despondency, proposed to his friends to mi- grate 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 be- sieged. He seems to have been a supple and elo- quent man, ready to venture on the boldest steps, as means for mere personal ends, but utterly lack- ing in address to use them at the right moment ; and generally weak, ineflicient, and cowai'dly. (Herod, v. 30—38, 49—51, 97—100, 124—126 ; Thuc. iv. 102.) [A. H. C] ARISTA'GORAS {'Apurrayopas). 1. Tyi-ant 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 Per-