Arion Arion Arion (; ) was a kitharode in ancient Greece, a Dionysiac poet credited with inventing the dithyramb: "As a literary composition for chorus dithyramb was the creation of Arion of Corinth," The islanders of Lesbos claimed him as their native son, but Arion found a patron in Periander, tyrant of Corinth. Although notable for his musical inventions, Arion is chiefly remembered for the fantastic myth of his kidnapping by pirates and miraculous rescue by dolphins, a folktale motif. Herodotus (1.23) says "Arion was second to none of the lyre-players in his time and was also the first man we
Arion (mythology) of Lycophron (153) attribute to him the same origin Pausanias says: In support of the lineage they advance, Pausanias reports, the Arcadians cite some verses from the "Iliad" (23.346 quoted above) and the "Thebaid" (an early Greek epic of uncertain authorship, of which only fragments remain). Pausanias says that ""in the Thebaid it is said that Adrastus fled from Thebes: 'Wearing wretched clothes, and with him dark-maned Areion' "". Latin scholia assert that these verses indicate that Neptune was Arion's sire. But Pausanias goes on to quote Antimachus of Colophon as saying that Arion was a child of the Earth