Aristaeus in Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities

（Ἀρισταῖος). A son of Apollo and Cyrené, was born in Libya. He afterwards went to Thrace, where he fell in love with Eurydicé, the wife of Orpheus. The latter, while fleeing from him, perished by the bite of a serpent; whereupon the Nymphs, in anger, destroyed the bees of Aristaeus. The way in which he recovered his bees is related in the Fourth Georgic of Vergil. After his death he was worshipped as a god, on account of the benefits he had conferred upon mankind. He was regarded as the protector of flocks and shepherds, of vine and olive plantations; he taught men to keep bees, and averted from the fields the burning heat of the sun and other causes of destruction. He is said to have had the care of Dionysus when young.