Aristaeüs

A minor pastoral deity and protector of the beekeepers. Aristaeüs (Aristaeus) was the son of Apollo and the nymph Cyrene, the daughter of Hypseus, king of the Lapiths in Thessaly. Aristaeüs had a brother named Idmon, a warrior seer who was an Argonaut.

Apollo fell in love with the maiden who had wrestled with a lion. Apollo seduced her and she bore him a son. Aristaeüs was left in the care of the wise and immortal Centaur named Cheiron. Apollo took Cyrene away to Libya, where she founded and named the city after herself.

Aristaeüs inherited or learned from his father the skills of prophecy and healing. He was also an exceptional hunter like his father and mother. Aristaeüs also became skilled in bee-keeping and olive growing. His tutors included Cheiron, the Muses and various wood and mountain nymphs.

Aristaeüs married a nymph for a short time, but fell in love with another nymph named Eurydice. However, this dryad was married to the musician named Orpheus, another son of Apollo. Aristaeüs pursued the frightened nymph until Eurydice was bitten and killed by a deadly adder.

The dryads, sisters of Eurydice, punished Aristaeüs by causing swarms of bees to die from diseases. Aristaeüs called upon his mother to find out why his beehives were decimated. Cyrene advised her son to capture and hold Proteus until the wise sea-god revealed the secret.

Aristaeüs learned from Proteus that the dryads were punishing him for the death of their sister, which also had caused Orpheus' death. Only by sacrificing to the dryads and Orpheus would he able to save his beehive. Aristaeüs sacrificed a bull in a grove. Nine days later he found a swarm of bees around the bull's carcass.

Aristaeüs married again, this time to Autonoe the daughter of Cadmus, the king of Thebes. Aristaeüs moved to Thebes where he lived with his new wife. Autonoe bore him a son named Actaeon. Actaeon became a great hunter, but he died when offended Artemis. See Children of Cadmus.

In his grief for his son, Aristaeüs left Thebes and moved to the island of Ceus to help the people end the unnatural heat when the constellation Sirus, the Dog Star, rose from the sea.

I could find any detail about how Aristaeüs died. Like Dionysus and Heracles, Aristaeüs was a mortal who was worshipped as a god. Aristaeüs seemed to be the god of beehives or bee-keeping, olive growing and cheese making. Aristaeüs was possibly also the god of hunting.

Hesiod described Aristaeüs as long haired.