Histories

Trusting none more than the Corinthians, he hired a Corinthian vessel to carry him from Taranto [17.216,40.466] (inhabited place), Taranto, Apulia, Italy, Europe Tarentum.[*](Terentum) But when they were out at sea, the crew plotted to take Arion's money and cast him overboard. Discovering this, he earnestly entreated them, asking for his life and offering them his money.

But the crew would not listen to him, and told him either to kill himself and so receive burial on land or else to jump into the sea at once.

Abandoned to this extremity, Arion asked that, since they had made up their minds, they would let him stand on the half-deck in all his regalia and sing; and he promised that after he had sung he would do himself in.

The men, pleased at the thought of hearing the best singer in the world, drew away toward the waist of the vessel from the stern. Arion, putting on all his regalia and taking his lyre, stood up on the half-deck and sang the “Stirring Song,”[*](The o)/rqios no/mos was a high-pitched (and apparently very well-known) song or hymn in honor of Apollo.) and when the song was finished he threw himself into the sea, as he was with all his regalia.

So the crew sailed away to Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth; but a dolphin (so the story goes) took Arion on his back and bore him to Taenarus. Landing there, he went to Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth in his regalia, and when he arrived, he related all that had happened.