Aristaeus- Greek DemigodDemigod"Agreus"

Son of Apollo and Cyrene

Apollo witnessed the Thessalian huntress Cyrene wrestling a lion barehanded on Mount Pelion. He carried her across the sea to Libya and named a city for her. There she bore Aristaeus. Gaia and the Horae received the infant, feeding him nectar and ambrosia to make him immortal, and the centaur Chiron educated him in healing and pastoral craft. Aristaeus taught mortals to keep bees and press olives for oil.

The Bees, the Nymphs, and Proteus

Aristaeus pursued the dryad Eurydice with unwanted desire. As she fled through a meadow, a venomous serpent bit her and she died. Her companion nymphs, grief-stricken and enraged, destroyed every one of Aristaeus's bee colonies.

Desperate, Aristaeus sought help from his mother Cyrene, who received him in her grotto beneath the river Peneus. She told him to find the shape-shifting sea god Proteus on the island of Pharos and hold him fast no matter what form he took. Aristaeus caught Proteus at his midday rest among his seal herd and seized him. The old god changed to fire and then to a snarling beast, but Aristaeus held on until Proteus relented and spoke. The nymphs had killed the bees in retribution for Eurydice's death. Following Cyrene's counsel, Aristaeus slaughtered four bulls and four heifers and left their carcasses sealed in an enclosed space. Nine days later, new swarms of bees poured from the rotting bodies. His apiaries were restored.

Actaeon

Aristaeus married Autonoë, daughter of Cadmus, and their son Actaeon grew into a hunter, until Artemis transformed him into a stag for seeing her bathing and his own hounds tore him apart. Aristaeus grieved deeply and afterward wandered the Mediterranean, journeying to Ceos where he ended a drought by summoning the Etesian winds, and eventually to Thrace, where some say he disappeared near Mount Haemus.