Arion of Lesbos

Albrecht Dürer : Arion riding a dolphin , 1514

The poor singer , watercolor by Matthäus Kern , 1841

Arion of Lesbos ( Greek Ἀρίων ) was a Greek singer and poet in the 7th century BC. Chr.

Life

Arion of Lesbos came from Mithymna on Lesbos , but spent a large part of his life as an artist at the court of the tyrant Periander of Corinth (around 600 BC), where he achieved great fame and fortune.

Arion developed the dithyramb , originally part of the Dionysus cult , into a perfected art form, a choir with secular texts, from which Greek tragedy eventually developed. He is also considered the inventor of the cyclical choirs. None of the songs and poems that he is said to have written have survived.

myth

Boy riding a dolphin , lapel of a Roman denarius , around 76 BC Chr.

Arion on a Sea Horse , painting by William Adolphe Bouguereau , 1855 ( Cleveland Museum of Art )

Little is known from the life of Arion except for a legend that Herodotus (I, 23 f.) Attributed to the singer first: In order to increase his reputation in foreign countries, Arion visited Sicily, where he became the acclaimed winner of a singing competition and joined Piled with riches on the way home.

His treasures aroused the envy of the sailors, who presented him with the choice of jumping overboard or being murdered. However, they granted his wish to sing one last song. When Arion started his song, a group of dolphins soon appeared at the ship, after which the singer plunged into the waves. One of the dolphins carried Arion on his back until he reached the country safely at Tainaron and was able to continue his journey home to Corinth. The criminal sailors awaited their punishment there, but a memorial was erected in honor of the dolphin. In some traditions the constellation dolphin was interpreted as Arion, riding a dolphin, which was brought to heaven by Apollon , the god of music.

literature

Emmet Robbins: Arion. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 1, Metzler, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-476-01471-1 , Sp. 1083 f.
Herbert David Brumble: Classical Myths and Legends in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Greenwood Press, Westport 1998, ISBN 0-313-29451-8 , pp. 36-38.
Otto Crusius : Arion 5 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II, 1, Stuttgart 1895, Col. 836-841.

Web links

Commons : Arion - collection of images, videos and audio files

Photos of representations of Arion in the arts in the Warburg Institute Iconographic Database

personal data
SURNAME	Arion of Lesbos
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Greek singer and poet
DATE OF BIRTH	7th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH	7th century BC BC or 6th century BC Chr.