Half-Olympian son of Apollo by the Lapith princess Cyrene; pastoral civilizing-hero of the Greek world. Credited with the invention of beekeeping, cheese-making, olive cultivation, hunting techniques, and the protection of herds. The Eurydice-snakebite tradition (Virgil Georgics 4) makes Aristaeus the indirect cause of Orpheus's descent to Hades, and supplies the etiology of the bugonia bee-from-bull-carcass rite. Father of Actaeon by Autonoë daughter of Cadmus — the line that connects Apollo through Aristaeus into the Cadmean royal house of Thebes. Apotheosed near Mt. Haemus per Diodorus; cult-honors persisted at Ceos, Boeotia, Sicily, and Sardinia among other locations.