a celebrated Lesbian lyric poet and musician, the son of Cyclos of Methymna. After gaining great reputation in Greece, he passed over into Italy and Sicily, where he obtained the public prizes for poetry and music, and amassed considerable wealth during his sojourn in the Graeco-Italian and Sicilian states. At length he embarked in a vessel for his native country; but, on the voyage, the crew, to obtain possession of his wealth, conspired to destroy him. The only favour granted to the poet, when he begged for his life, was permission to throw himself into the sea, after performing one of his lyric compositions on the deck of the vessel. A dolphin, it is said, attracted by the music, gambolled around the ship, and receiving the poet on its back, bore him in safety to the shore near Tienarus, whence Arion hastened to the residence of his friend Periander, tyrant of Corinth, a patron of poetry and the fine arts. Arion was well received by Periander, who gave orders to watch the arrival of the ship in which he had embarked. The crew, when questioned where they had last seen Arion, affirmed that they left him well at Tarentum; but Arion appearing suddenly in the garb he had worn before he leapt into the sea, they confessed their villany, and were condemned to crucifixion. The cautious Herodotus, without vouching for its truth, states this to be the tradition of the Lesbians and Corinthians; and adds, that the votive offering of Arion, a bronze figure of a man riding on a dolphin, is to be seen at Tamarus.—Clio, 23, 24.

fabulous 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.—See Pausan. viii. 25; Apollod. iii. 6.