ARION, an admirable horse, much more famous in
poetic history than Bucephalus in that of Alexander. Authors speak variously of his origin, though they agree in giving him a divine one. His production is most commonly ascribed to Neptune. This god, according to some, raised him out of the ground by a stroke of his trident: according to others, he begot him upon the body of the fury Erinnys; according to others, upon that of Ceres, whom he ravished in the form of a horse, she having previously assumed the form of a mare to elude his pursuit. This horse was nursed by the Nereids; and being sometimes yoked with the sea-horses of Neptune to the chariot of this god, he drew him with incredible swiftness through the sea. He had this singularity in him, that his right feet resembled those of a man. Neptune gave him to Capreus king of Haliartus. Capreus made a present of him to Hercules; who mounted him when he took the city of Elis, gained the prize with him in the race against Cygnus the son of Mars near Treccena, and at last made a present of him to Adrastus. It is under this last master that Arion has signalized himself the most: he won the prize for racing at the Nemean games, which the princes who went to besiege Thebes instituted in the honour of Archemorus; and was the cause that Adrastus did not perish in this famous expedition as all the other chiefs did.