Arion, a musician of Lesbos, the reputed inventor of dithyrambic poetry, was a friend of Periander, the ruler of Corinth (about 000 B. 0.). Having spent some time in Sicily and Italy, he amassed great wealth by his playing on the cithara, in which he excelled all his contemporaries. On a voyage from Ta-rentum to Corinth the sailors determined to throw him overboard and seize his treasures. Discovering the plot, he begged permission to play one melodious tune before it was put in execution, and, having done so, threw himself into the sea. The dolphins, charmed by his music, carried him on their hacks to T;enarus, whence he passed over to Corinth, and on the arrival of the ship Periander had the sailors put to death.