Aristænĕtus, a writer whose epistles have been beautifully edited by Abresch. Zwollæ, 1749.
Aristæum, a city of Thrace at the foot of mount Hæmus. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 11.
Aristæus, son of Apollo and the nymph Cyrene, was born in the deserts of Libya, and brought up by the Seasons, and fed upon nectar and ambrosia. His fondness for hunting procured him the surname of Nomus and Agreus. After he had travelled over the greatest part of the world, Aristæus came to settle in Greece, where he married Autonoe the daughter of Cadmus, by whom he had a son called Actæon. He fell in love with Eurydice the wife of Orpheus, and pursued her in the fields. She was stung by a serpent that lay in the grass, and died, for which the gods destroyed all the bees of Aristæus. In this calamity he applied to his mother, who directed him to seize the sea-god Proteus, and consult him how he might repair the losses he had sustained. Proteus advised him to appease the manes of Eurydice by the sacrifice of four bulls and four heifers; and as soon as he had done it and left them in the air, swarms of bees immediately sprang from the rotten carcases, and restored Aristæus to his former prosperity. Some authors say that Aristæus had the care of Bacchus when young, and that he was initiated in the mysteries of this god. Aristæus went to live on mount Hæmus, where he died. He was, after death, worshipped as a demi-god. Aristæus is said to have learned from the nymphs the cultivation of olives, and the management of bees, &c., which he afterwards communicated to the rest of mankind. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 317.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Justin, bk. 13, ch. 7.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 1, li. 363.—Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 3, ch. 18.—Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 17.—Hyginus, fables 161, 180, 247.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 4.—Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 4, &c.—Polyænus, bk. 1, ch. 24.——A general who commanded the Corinthian forces at the siege of Potidæa. He was taken by the Athenians and put to death.
Aristagŏras, a writer who composed a history of Egypt. Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 12.——A son-in-law of Histiæus tyrant of Miletus, who revolted from Darius, and incited the Athenians against Persia, and burnt Sardis. This so exasperated the king, that every evening before supper he ordered his servants to remind him of punishing Aristagoras. He was killed in a battle against the Persians, B.C. 499. Herodotus, bk. 5, ch. 30, &c.; bk. 7, ch. 8.—Polyænus, bk. 1, ch. 14.——A man of Cyzicus.——Another of Cumæ. Herodotus, bk. 4.
Aristander, a celebrated soothsayer, greatly esteemed by Alexander. Plutarch, Alexander.—Pliny, bk. 17, ch. 25.——An Athenian, who wrote on agriculture.
Aristandros, a statuary of Sparta. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 18.
Aristarche, a matron of Ephesus, who by order of Diana sailed to the coasts of Gaul with the Phocæans, and was made priestess. Strabo, bk. 4.
Aristarchus, a celebrated grammarian of Samos, disciple of Aristophanes. He lived the greatest part of his life at Alexandria, and Ptolemy Philometer entrusted him with the education of his sons. He was famous for his critical powers, and he revised the poems of Homer with such severity that ever after all severe critics were called Aristarchi. He wrote above 800 commentaries on different authors, much esteemed in his age. In his old age he became dropsical, upon which he starved himself, and died in his 72nd year, B.C. 157. He left two sons called Aristarchus and Aristagoras, both famous for their stupidity. Horace, Art of Poetry, li. 499.—Ovid, bk. 3, ex Ponto, ltr. 9, li. 24.—Cicero, Letters to his Friends, bk. 3, ltr. 11; Letters to Atticus, bk. 1, ltr. 14.—Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1.——A tragic poet of Tegea in Arcadia, about 454 years B.C. He composed 70 tragedies, of which two only were rewarded with the prize. One of them, called Achilles, was translated into Latin verse by Ennius. Suidas.——A physician to queen Berenice the widow of Antiochus. Polyænus, bk. 8.——An orator of Ambracia.——An astronomer of Samos, who first supposed that the earth turned round its axis, and revolved round the sun. This doctrine nearly proved fatal to him, as he was accused of disturbing the peace of the gods Lares. He maintained that the sun was 19 times further distant from the earth than the moon, and that the moon was 56 semi-diameters of our globe, and little more than one-third, and the diameter of the sun six or seven times more than that of the earth. The age in which he flourished is not precisely known. His treatise on the largeness and the distance of the sun and moon is extant, of which the best edition is that of Oxford, 8vo, 1688.
Aristazānes, a noble Persian in favour with Artaxerxes Ochus. Diodorus, bk. 16.
Aristeas, a poet of Proconnesus, who, as fables report, appeared seven years after his death to his countrymen, and 540 years after to the people of Metapontum in Italy, and commanded them to raise him a statue near the temple of Apollo. He wrote an epic poem on the Arimaspi in three books, and some of his verses are quoted by Longinus. Herodotus, bk. 4, ch. 13.—Strabo, bk. 14.—Maximus Tyrius, bk. 22.——A [♦]physician of Rhodes.——A geometrician, intimate with Euclid.——A poet, son of Demochares, in the age of Crœsus.