ARION

'Arion' was a legendary poet and citharode in ancient Greece (originally of Lesbos) who lived in the court of Periander, tyrant of Corinth. He attended a musical competition in Sicily, which he won. On his return trip from Sicily, avaricious sailors plotted to kill Arion and steal the rich prizes he carried home. Arion was given the choice of suicide with a proper burial on land, or being thrown in the sea to perish. Neither prospect appealed to Arion, and he asked for permission to sing a last song to win time.
Playing his cithara, Arion sung a praise to Apollo, the god of poetry, and his song attracted a number of dolphins around the ship. At the end of the song, Arion threw himself into the sea rather than be killed, but one of the dolphins saved his life and carried him to safety at Cape Taenarum.
Arion then continued to Corinth by other means and arrived before the sailors that tried to kill him. On his return to Corinth, the king didn't quite believe Arion's fantastic story. The sailors believed Arion was dead in the sea, and on arrival in Corinth they told the king that Arion had decided to remain in Italy. The king then understood that Arion's story was true and punished the sailors with death. (Herodotus I, 23-24)
Other variations of the story exist. In 1994, it was adapted by Vikram Seth and Alec Roth into the opera Arion and the Dolphin, commissioned by the English National Opera for professional performers with community chorus and children's chorus. It premiered at Plymouth in 1994 under conductor Nicholas Kok and director Rebecca Meitlis.
Arion is mentioned in Act 1, scene ii of Shakespeare's ''Twelfth Night''.

Contents

Trivia

Notes

External links

Trivia

★ Arion was credited with the invention of the dithyramb.

★ The Jimmy Buffett song ''Jolly Mon'' is based on this fable.

★ The Arion fable inspired the central sculptural group in the main water basin of the formal gardens of Schloss Schwetzingen, Germany.

★ There is a poem by Alexander Pushkin named "Arion". Seamus Heaney published an English version in Electric Light (2001):

... Only I, still singing, washed

Ashore by the long sea-swell, sing on,

A mystery to my poet self,

And safe and sound beneath a rock shelf

Have spread my wet clothes in the sun.^[1]

★ There is an Japanese animation (anime) film named Arion that blends various Greek tales into an original story, following the story of a Hercules-like boy named Arion who struggles against various forces. The music in the film is by Joe Hisaishi, the main composer of all the music in Hayao Miyazaki's films.

★ The Greek music awards show is called the ARION.

★ There is a cantata by the French Baroque composer André Campra telling the story of Arion

★ There is a mystical character in DC Comics called Arion, Lord of Atlantis.

★ A trianually published journal of humanities and the classics published by Boston University is titled Arion[1].

Notes

1. Seamus Heaney (2001), Electric Light, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, p. 87.

External links

★ Arion in Bullfinch's Mythology A longer version of the myth.