KYRENE (Cyrene) was a Thessalian princess, the daughter of King Hypseus of the Lapiths. She was a famed huntress who guarded her father's herds on Mount Pelion, slaying wild beasts with javelin and sword. One day, when she was wrestling a lion, the god Apollon spied her and was inflamed with love. He carried her off to the Hill of Myrtles (Myrtoessa) in Libya where she bore him a son named Aristaios (Aristaeus). The boy was placed in the care of the wise Kentauros Kheiron (Chiron) and became a demi-god of beekeeping and other rustic pursuits. The Greeks later founded the colony of Kyrene on the site in Libya where she deposited by the god.

Apollo slept with Cyrene in form of a wolf according to the late Roman writer Servius in his commentary on the Aeneid (377), although other sources don’t mention this.