Aristaeus was the mythological culture hero credited with the discovery of many rural useful arts and handicrafts, including bee-keeping; he was the son of the huntress Cyrene and Apollo.

The Georgics is a poem by Latin poet Virgil, likely published in 29 BCE. As the name suggests the subject of the poem is agriculture; but far from being an example of peaceful rural poetry, it is a work characterized by tensions in both theme and purpose.