ARISTEAS, a mythical personage in ancient Greece, said to have lived in the time of Cyrus and Croesus, or according to some c. 690 B.C. His poem Arimaspeia describes his travels in countries N. and E. of the Euxine; he visited the Hyperboreans, Issedonians and Arimaspians, who fought against the gold-guarding griffins. An important historical fact which seems to be indicated in his poem is the rush of barbarian hordes towards Europe under pres sure from their neighbours.
Twelve lines of the poem are preserved in Tzetzes and Longinus. According to Suidas, Aristeas also wrote a prose theogony. The genuineness of his works is disputed by Dionysius of Halicar nassus.
See Tournier, De Aristea Proconneso (1863) ; Macan, Herodotus iv., 13, 14 (note), 15.