ARION (pronounced Aιd'on), a celebrated poet and cithara player, a native of Methymna, in Lesbos. As he is said to have been the friend of Periander, tyrant of Corinth, he must have flourished about 625 b.c. Several of the ancients ascribe to him the invention of the dithyramb and of dithyrambic poetry; it is probable, however, that his real service was confined to the organisation of that verse, and the conversion of it from a mere drunken song, used in the Bacchic revels, to a measured antistrophic hymn, sung by a trained body of performers. Nothing more is known of the life of Arion, with the exception of the beautiful story first told by Herodotus, and afterwards elaborated and embellished by many subsequent writers. According to Herodotus, Arion had become desirous of exhibiting his skill in foreign countries, and, leaving Corinth, had travelled through Sicily and parts of Italy, where he gained great fame, and amassed a large sum of money. At Tarentum he embarked for his homeward voyage in a ship belonging to Corinth. The sight of his treasure roused the cupidity of the sailors, who resolved to possess themselves of it by putting him to death. Tn answer to his entreaties that they would spare his life, they insisted that he should either die by his own hand on shipboard, or cast himself into the sea. Arion chose the latter, and as a last favour begged permission to sing a parting song. The sailors, desirous of hearing so famous a musician, consented, and the poet, standing on the deck of the ship, arrayed in the rich garments in which he was accustomed to be habited, sang a dirge accompanied by his lyre. He then threw himself overboard; but instead of perishing, as the sailors imagined, he was miraculously borne up in safety by a dolphin, supposed to have been ...