Aristeas of Proconnesus was a semi-legendary poet of the 7th century BCE. Herodotus provides the principal account, describing him as a miracle-worker from Proconnesus whose death was followed by a reappearance in Metapontum, where he claimed to have traveled with Apollo. He was reputed to project his soul at will and to have journeyed to the distant north, bringing back tales of the Issedones, the one-eyed Arimaspians, gold-guarding griffins, and the Hyperboreans.

His only known work is the lost hexameter epic Arimaspea, which narrated these mythical northern travels. Aristeas is a significant precursor to Greek ethnographic writing. His Arimaspea influenced later authors like Herodotus and its fantastical creatures entered the broader mythological tradition. The legends of his ecstatic journeys and supernatural abilities made him a paradigmatic divine man and a figure often compared to other archaic wise men.