Summary: Herodotus, Arion and the Dolphin
In the time of
Periander the tyrant of Corinth (which would be about 625 BC), there was a
great singer whose name was Arion. Arion sailed from Corinth to Sicily to sing
in a singing contest there. Because Arion was such a great singer, he won all
the singing contests and got tons of prizes. He had heaps of gold and jewels.
When the contest was over, Arion got on a ship with all his prizes to go home
to Corinth.
Dolphins on an Etruscan
vase from about 520 BC. But once they were out of sight of shore, the sailors
on the ship decided to steal Arion’s gold and jewels. Arion begged the sailors
to just take his prizes and let him live, but they thought it was too dangerous
to let him live. He might tell on them when he got home. So Arion asked the
sailors to let him just sing one last song before he jumped into the ocean, and
they agreed to let him sing one last song. As the last notes of his song were
dying away, Arion jumped into the water with his lyre.
But a family of
dolphins had been listening to Arion’s beautiful song. Just as Arion was
drowning, the dolphins swam over and picked him up. Arion rode all the way back
to Corinth on the back of a dolphin. When he got there, he told the tyrant
Periander what had happened. Periander waited for the sailors to get to
Corinth; then he arrested them and got all the gold and jewels back.
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