In Greek mythology, the Attic shepherds are the herdsmen to whom Icarius of Athens first offered Dionysus' wine. Drunk and fearing poison, they kill their host; Athens later atones with rites for Icarius and Erigone after plague and the hanging of the city's maidens.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Icarius (Athenian)" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Killers of Icarius
When Dionysus rewarded Icarius' hospitality with the vine, Icarius shared wine with Attic shepherds. Apollodorus and Hyginus agree that the herdsmen, unused to drink without water, thought themselves bewitched or poisoned and beat Icarius to death — though some versions have them bury him once sobriety returned by day.
Erigone and the dog Maera find the body; Erigone hangs herself. Dionysus (or Apollo in Hyginus' plague version) punishes Athens until the city institutes honourific rites — the Aiora swinging festival among them — and Icarius is set among the stars as Boötes. The shepherds are the collective agents of the murder that opens that Attic cult aetiology.