The Legend of Arion

... Periander was the tyrant of Corinth. With him, as the Corinthians say (and this story is also confirmed by the lesbians), the greatest miracle happened in life. Arion of Mephimna was carried on a dolphin from the sea at Tenar. He was an incomparable kifared of his time and, as far as I know, was the first to compose praises, gave him a name and trained a choir for performance in Corinth.

This Arion spent most of his life with Periander and then decided to sail to Italy and Sicelia. There he amassed great wealth, then wished to return back to Corinth. He set out on a journey from Tarant and, since he trusted no one more to the Corinthians, he hired a ship from the Corinthian sailors. And the shipbuilders conceived an evil deed: to throw Arion into the sea on the high seas and take possession of his treasures. Arion, guessing about their intent, began to beg to save his life, offering to give all his treasures. However, he failed to soften the shipbuilders. They told Arion to either take his own life in order to be buried in the ground, or immediately throw himself into the sea. In such a desperate situation, Arion nevertheless begged the shipbuilders (since that was their decision) to at least allow him to sing in the full dress of a singer, standing on the rowers' bench. He promised that by singing his song, he would take his own life. Then the shipmen moved from the stern to the middle of the ship, rejoicing that they were about to hear the best singer in the world. Arion, donning the full outfit of a singer, took the cithara and, standing at the stern, sang a solemn song. Having finished the song, he, as he was in full dress, rushed into the sea. Meanwhile the shipmen sailed to Corinth, but Arion, as they say, picked up the dolphin on his back and carried it to Tenar. Arion went ashore and in his singing outfit set off for Corinth. Upon arriving there, he told everything that had happened to him. Periander, however, did not believe the story and ordered that Arion be taken into custody and not released anywhere, and the shipmen should be closely monitored. When they arrived in Corinth, Periander called them to him and asked what they knew about Arion. The sailors answered that Arion was living and well somewhere in Italy and they had left him in Taranta in complete well-being. Then Arion suddenly appeared in the same dress in which he threw himself into the sea. The amazed shipbuilders could no longer deny their guilt, as they had been caught. This is what the Corinthians and lesbians say. And on Tenar there is a small copper statue - a sacrificial gift from Arion, depicting a man on a dolphin.

Notes (edit)

Tyrant - in ancient Greece and in the medieval city-states of Italy - the sole ruler.

Cithared is one who plays the cithara, a kindred musical instrument of the ancient Greeks to the lyre.

Dithyrambe is exaggerated enthusiastic praise.

Rudolf Mertlik

A long time ago, the famous poet and musician Arion lived at the royal court in Corinth. He composed poetry, sang beautifully and played the lyre. Nobody could compare with him in this art. The fame of him thundered all over the world.

Everyone was fascinated by the songs of Arion: men and women, animals and birds. Even plants and waters did not remain indifferent to them. And more than once one could see such a picture: a wolf is chasing a sheep, it seems that he is about to grab it, but when he heard Arion's singing, he stops and listens, trying to understand where these magic sounds come from. And the sheep stops, it no longer has to fear the wolf, it stands and listens to Arion, spellbound by his singing. And other miracles could be seen at this time: timid hares and fierce hounds lay on the grass next to each other, roe deer without any fear approached the predatory animals, instead of rushing away.

Fast streams froze, water in rivers froze motionless. Arion's singing bewitched everyone and everything. But each person, sooner or later, comes with a desire to wander around the world, to see the world, to show oneself. So Arion once turned to the king: “King, for a long time I delighted you with my singing. Let me leave you for a while and sail away to distant lands. Tell the sailors to prepare a reliable ship and sail on it wherever I wish. "

King Arion listened and frowned. He did not want to be separated from his guest, who had found a second home in Corinth. But he didn't want to hinder either. Therefore I told him; “I will let you sail, but promise that you will return to Corinth. All of us will be sad without your singing and playing the lyre. "

Arion promised that after his wanderings he would return to the king. He put on a beautiful purple cloak, took his precious gilded lyre, said goodbye to the king, and entered the ship. I told the sailors to sail towards Sicily,

The inhabitants of the island solemnly greeted the ship. The glory of Arion raced faster than his ship, so huge crowds of people gathered on the shore, wishing to see the great singer. Representatives of all Sicilian cities vied with each other to invite Arion. on to visit. The singer did not refuse anyone, he visited everywhere where he was called. After that, ambassadors from Italy arrived to Arion. The whole country, they said, is looking forward to the best of all the singers who have ever lived, dreams of hearing his songs mesmerizing people.

Arion was a welcome guest in the palaces of kings and noble people. They all tried to bestow upon him as generously and richer as possible, so that very soon he collected many treasures and other property. Despite this reception, the singer began to recall more and more the abandoned Corinth, the friends and the king who remained there.

And then Arion turned to the Corinthian sailors who had brought him, whom he had become accustomed to trust in everything during his wanderings. He told them he wanted to board the ship and return home.

The sailors were delighted. Then they saw how much gold and other riches Arion was carrying with him, and they were seized with anger and envy. Black thoughts arose in their heads and formed into a criminal plot. They decided to kill the singer and take possession of his wealth.

When the shores of Italy disappeared from sight and only the sea stretched all around, the helmsman approached Arion, drew his sword from its scabbard and exclaimed: "If you do not give us all the gold that you are carrying, then we will kill you." The rest of the sailors came up, swords in their hands. They surrounded the renowned singer.

Arion realized what awaited him. Turning to the conspirators, he said: “Friends, I will give you all my treasures, just do not kill me! Since I give you everything that I have, you must give me life. "

But the sailors had hardened hearts, Arion's request did not soften them.

“You don't know us well, dear Arion! - they answered mockingly. - This is what we offer you! Either you commit suicide before our eyes, or you throw yourself into the sea! If you choose the first, we will bury you as it should be, so that you will find peace after death. "

It is clear that when you have to choose between types of death, it is not easy to do. Arion did not know what to decide on. The villains began to rush him. Then Arion turned to them with the last request: “Friends, I understand that my words will not soften you. But let me play the lyre and sing for the last time. After that I will commit suicide. "

The sailors agreed. At least they can then boast that the most famous of all singers sang to them. They sat down beside him so that they could see and hear better. Arion took the lyre, adorned his head with a wreath and stood on the bench. In his beautiful purple cloak, he appeared to the sailors as a god. Arion touched the magic strings, wonderful singing sounded. Only a dying swan, hit by an arrow, can sing so beautifully and sadly. The strings of the lyre had not yet rang out, as Arion with a lightning jump was carried over the side of the ship and found himself in the waves. The sailors only had time to cry out in surprise. A moment later they had to utter an exclamation of surprise again: a large dolphin swam up to Arion and offered his back to the swimmer. The divine singer mounted him astride a horse, and the dolphin rushed him to the distant shore.

For a long time the sailors could not recover from amazement at the sight of this miracle. They had never seen anything like it. Rejoicing at his rescue, Arion sang and played, sitting on the dolphin's back. Listening to him, the sea waves died down. The water surface glittered brightly under the rays of the sun. Flocks of fish floated on all sides, attracted by music and singing. The kind dolphin who saved Arion also enjoyed the enchanting sounds. They were the best reward for him.

“Well,” decided the sailors, “let the singer live for himself. After all, we got his treasures anyway. " And the ship sailed on. But the dolphin swam much faster than the ship. Soon he reached the shore, and Arion, having thanked the dolphin from the bottom of his heart, stepped ashore.

Without delay, he made his way to Corinth. There he told the king about everything that happened to him on the way back. The tsar did not really believe the singer. Having instructed the guards not to take their eyes off Arion, he waited for the arrival of the ship with the villainous sailors. A few days later the ship entered the harbor and docked. The king ordered to immediately bring the entire team to him. When the sailors appeared before him, the king began to ask them how the voyage had gone, and then wondered if they had any news about Arion.

“You have nothing to worry about him, king! - the sailors began to assure him. “He is doing well, he is healthy, he is wandering around Italy and his fame is still coming.”

As soon as they had finished, the door opened and Arion entered the hall in all his splendor and grandeur. The sailors froze in fear. They could not deny their guilt. The king severely punished them for their atrocity.

But the gods rewarded the good dolphin. The supreme god Zeus himself took the dolphin to the sky and turned it into a constellation. Since then, the constellation called Dolphin shines in the night sky.

Considerable honors were shown to him on earth. In the place where he dropped Arion ashore, there is a copper sculpture depicting a rider riding a dolphin. Local residents still say that dolphins love music and swim next to the ship, from which you can hear cheerful singing.

Mertlik R. Ancient legends and stories: Per. with Czech. - M .: Respublika, 1992 .-- 479 p.

The author of the reader's diary

Electronic reader's diary

Book Information

Book cover illustration

A.S. PUSHKIN

There were many of us on the boat;

Others strained the sail,

Others unanimously resisted

The oars are powerful in depth. In silence

Leaning on the steering wheel, our helmsman is smart

The overweight canoe ruled in silence;

And I am full of careless faith, -

I sang to the swimmers ... Suddenly the bosom of the waves

I crumpled a noisy whirlwind on the fly ...

Both the helmsman and the swimmer were killed! -

I alone, the mysterious singer,

Thrown ashore by a thunderstorm,

I sing the old hymns

And my wet robe

I dry in the sun under a rock.

About the author of the book

Herodotus (circa 485 - 430 BC) Ancient Greek historian, nicknamed "the father of history." Author of essays dedicated to the description of the Greco-Persian wars with the history of the Achaemenid state, Egypt, etc .; gave the first systematic description of the life and life of the Scythians. It is believed that he was born in Halicarnassus, a Greek city in the southwest of Asia Minor, then under the rule of Persia. In his youth, Herodotus took part in an uprising against Ligdam, the tyrant of Halicarnassus, and as a result was forced to leave his homeland. He spent more than 10 years traveling, traveled to almost all the famous countries of his time: Greece, Southern Italy, Asia Minor, Egypt, Babylon, Persia, visited most of the Mediterranean islands, visited the Black Sea, Crimea (up to Chersonesos) and the land of the Scythians. Writing "History", which glorified him for centuries and millennia, Herodotus probably began in his wanderings. This is a colossal work - an account of events from mythical times to the modern author of the Greco-Persian wars. Even in antiquity, the scholars of Alexandria divided the "History" of Herodotus into 9 books, naming each of them after one of the Greek muses. Returning as a young man to his homeland, to Halicarnassus, the traveler again took part in the popular movement against the tyrant Ligdam and helped to overthrow him. In 444 BC. NS. Herodotus attended the Panathenaean festivals and read excerpts from the descriptions of his travels there, causing general delight. Towards the end of his life, he retired to Italy, to Turium, where he lived the rest of his days, leaving behind the fame of a famous traveler and an even more famous historian.

Arion the son of Poseidon and the nymph Onea, a wonderful singer, has a beautiful voice, composed songs, praises in honor of Dionysus. Once, by invitation to participate in a music competition in the city of Tenar, Sicily, the Corinthian tyrant Periander did not want to but allowed him to go by sea on a ship. Arion won and he got the main award, and his fans showered with so many gifts that the sailors who took him back were envious. On the ship, the captain turned to him and said that he must die, since he is very rich. Arion offered to give all his gifts and pay upon arrival, but they did not want to listen, since a forced gift is no longer a gift.

Arion is already willing to jump from the ship, but on condition that he sings a song for the last time. The captain agreed and Arion, wearing the best outfit and jewelry, went to the bow of the ship and began to sing, when the song was sung, he just jumped overboard, and the ship continued to sail further.

However, the song that he was attracted to a flock of dolphins who love music and when they heard him singing, they fell in love with him, one of them took him on his back and brought him to Corinth that evening, ahead of that ship by several days. Periander, rejoiced at such a salvation of Arion, and the dolphin really did not want to part with the singer and therefore became a victim of palace luxury, Arion gave him a magnificent funeral.

When the ship on which Arion sailed moored to the shore, Periander, with feigned alarm, asked the ship's crew where Arion was, to which they replied that he had stayed in Tenar, he really liked the excessive hospitality of the local residents. Periand remained a rather evil act of the team and therefore made them swear on the grave of Dolphin, they did so, after which he showed them to the eyes of Arion. Since they could no longer deny their guilt, they were immediately given to the treasury. After some time, Apollo placed the image of Arion among the stars.

Arion and Periander - historical figures who lived in the 7th century BC. Even an old fragment of the "Hymn to Poseidon" written by Arion has been preserved. This story is based on the legend of Arion and the dolphin, according to which his songs helped him to survive, because it is known that dolphins are very sensitive to singing and are very partial to music. Some authors doubt the veracity of this myth, but a certain author Pausanias reports that in the town of Poroselena, he saw with his own eyes a dolphin who was very badly wounded by local fishing and a little boy came out. After that, the dolphin constantly sailed to the call of the boy, and if he wanted to, he constantly rolled him on his back.

OVIDIUS. FAST. BOOK II

To which sea, which country Arion is not known,

Who knew how to subdue the waves of the sea with his song?

Often, while singing it, the wolf did not chase the sheep,

Often, fleeing from the wolf, the sheep stopped running.

Often in the shadow of one and the dogs and hares lay,

Often there was a doe on a rock next to a lioness.

Throwing all your gossip, with the Palladin's bird of the crow,

A dove could sit together with a kite.

Kinfia (Cynthia), often yours, Arion, admired the singing,

As if it wasn't you at all, but her brother was singing it.

Your name, Arion, Sicily has glorified everything

And your lyre was glorified in the land of Ausonian.

Arion chose a ship for himself on the way home from there

And he immersed on him what he had obtained by art.

True, unfortunate (infelix), you were frightened by the winds and waves,

But the sea turned out to be more accurate for you than the ship.

Already the helmsman stands, threatening with a drawn sword,

And the crowd armed with his accomplices.

Pilot, why do you need a sword? Drive an unreliable ship;

Is such a tackle entrusted to your fingers?

Not knowing fear, the singer says: “I am not afraid of death,

But let me touch the cithara (lyre) and sing. "

Everyone agreed, laughing. Then he puts on a wreath,

What yours, O Phoebus, could suit your hair.

He put on a long cloak, dyed with Tyrian purple,

And a string sounded, touched by his finger.

With a tearful melody he sang like a sharp arrow

A swan pierced in the temple calls out the last song.

Immediately, without taking off his outfit, he jumps straight into the abyss:

Everything is irrigated with blue spray of water.

It was then (perhaps eh?) A dolphin with a sharp curved back

Suddenly he took on an extraordinary burden.

He, with a cithara sitting on it, as a reward for help

She sings again and softens the wave with her song.

OVIDIUS. METAMORPHOSIS

ARION

"Since Arion of Mephimna mastered the art of playing the cithara, the Corinthian king Pirant loved him. When he asked the king to let him show his art in other cities and collected a large fortune, his servants agreed with the sailors to kill him.

Apollo came to him in a dream and told him to sing in his robe and wreath and put himself into the hands of those who would come to his aid.

When the servants and sailors wanted to kill him, he asked them to sing first. When the sound of the cithara and his voice resounded, dolphins appeared around the ship, and Arion, seeing them, rushed into the sea.

The dolphins picked him up and brought him to Corinth to the king Pirant. When he got down to land, he hurriedly did not push the dolphin into the sea, and he lost his life there.

When he told about what happened to him to Pirant, he ordered to bury the dolphin and erect a tomb for him. After a while, Pirant was informed that a storm had brought a ship on which Arion was traveling to Corinth.

He ordered to bring those who were on the ship to him and asked them about Arion. They said he was dead and they buried him.

The king answered them: tomorrow afternoon you will swear at the dolphin's tomb. He ordered to take them into custody, and ordered Arion to hide early in the morning in the dolphin's tomb, dressing as he was dressed when he threw himself into the sea.

When the king brought them there and ordered them to swear by the dolphin's manas that Arion had died, Arion left the tomb.

They, wondering what kind of deity saved him, went numb.

Apollo, for the art of playing the cithara, placed Arion and the dolphin in the sky among the stars. "

LEGEND ABOUT ARION.

Recorded by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus (484-425 BC)

“Who knows the story of Arion Metemnian? Showered with the gifts of Periander, the Tyrant of Corinth, he sailed joyfully on a ship to his homeland of Lesbos.

Suddenly the sailors conspired to kill him in order to take possession of all his treasures.

Arion promised in vain to give them these voluntarily; in vain, with tears, he asked them to only spare his life. The villains were unforgiving. Seeing his inevitable death, he conjured them to all the sacred, so that they would allow him to play the lyre for the last time. Not willingly and with difficulty, they agreed to this.

Then the Poet, full of lofty inspiration, leaped his farewell song, and, pouring into the strings, with inexpressible harmony, all the excitement of the soul, threw himself into the waves.

But believe me, about the power of miracles! The singer did not die. A dolphin, sailing near the ship, seduced by the sweetness of the song, took him to his ridge and carried him safely to Cape Tenara. "