User:Paul August/Arion (mythology)

Arion (mythology)

To Do

• Hyginus Fab 70? (see Hard, p. 321)
• Oxford Classical Dictionary
• Tripp
• Grimal
• Parada
• Smith
• Gantz
• Hard
• Brill's New Pauly
• Loeb search
• LIMC

New text

Lede

• Arion spirited Adrastus away to "near Colonus in Attica" (Grimal)

• Sister Despoina

• Harness-mate Caerus (Tripp, Smith, Paus. 8.25.9)

• Erinys vs. an Erinys

Sources

Ancient

Apollodorus

3.6.4

Having come to Nemea, ... They celebrated the Nemean games in his honor; and Adrastus won the horse race,

3.6.8

When that befell [Capaneus struck down by Zeus], the Argives turned to flee. And as many fell, ... Adrastus alone was saved by his horse Arion [Ἀρείων]. That horse Poseidon begot on Demeter, when in the likeness of a Fury she consorted with him.⁶

⁶ Arion, the swift steed of Adrastus, is mentioned by Homer, who alludes briefly to the divine parentage of the animal （Hom. Il. 22.346ff.）, without giving particulars to the quaint and curious myth with which he was probably acquainted. That myth, one of the most savage of all the stories of ancient Greece, was revealed by later writers. See Paus. 8.25.4-10; Paus. 8.42.1-6; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 153; compare Scholiast on Hom. Il. 23.346. The story was told at two places in the highlands of Arcadia: one was Thelpusa in the beautiful vale of the Ladon: the other was Phigalia, where the shallow cave of the goddess mother of the horse was shown far down the face of a cliff in the wild romantic gorge of the Neda. The cave still exists, though the goddess is gone: it has been converted into a tiny chapel of Christ and St. John. See Frazer, commentary on Pausanias, vol. iv. pp. 406ff.

Callimachus

fr. 223 Trypanis and Whitman pp. 154, 155

Arion [Ἀρίων], the Arcadian horse, did not rage thus at the shrine of Apesantian Zeus.^a

^a Arion is the famous horse of Adrastus, reputed to be the offspring of Posidon and Demeter, when she in equine form was seeking her daughter near Thelpusa in Arcadia. Apesas is a hill near Nemea.

Homer

Iliad

20.226

Of these [the mares of Erichthonius] as they grazed the North Wind [Βορέης Boreas] became enamoured, and he likened himself to a dark-maned stallion and covered them; [225] and they conceived, and bare twelve fillies These, when they bounded over the earth, the giver of grain, would course over the topmost ears of ripened corn and break them not, and whenso they bounded over the broad back of the sea, would course over the topmost breakers of the hoary brine.

23.346–7

Arion [Ἀρίονα], the swift horse of Adrastus, that was of heavenly stock,

Hyginus

Fabulae

68A

After a year had passed, Polynices son of Oedipus, with the help of Adrastus son of Talaus and seven generals, sought to reclaim the throne from his brother Eteocles, and they attacked Thebes. There Adrastus escaped, thanks to his horse. Capaneus ...

Oppian

Cynegetica

1.225

A horse there was which ran with light feet over the corn-ears^c and brake them not; another ran over the sea and wetted not his coronet.^d

^c Hom. Il. xx. 226 (of the offspring of Boreas and the mares of Erichthonius) αί δ' ὅτε ...

Pancrates of Alexandria

Page, pp. 518, 519

. . . swifter than the steed of Adrastus,^a that once saved its master easily, when he was fleeing through the press of battle.

^a Adrastus was saved by his horse Arion in the battle of the Seven against Thebes: Homer Il. xxiii. 346–347, Apollod. iii. 6. 7.

Pausanias

8.25.4

After Thelpusa the Ladon descends to the sanctuary of Demeter in Onceium. The Thelpusians call the goddess Fury, and with them agrees Antimachus also, who wrote a poem about the expedition of the Argives against Thebes. His verse runs thus:

"There, they say, is the seat of Demeter Fury." [Antimachus, unknown location.]

Now Oncius was, according to tradition, a son of Apollo, and held sway in Thelpusian territory around the place Oncium; the goddess has the surname Fury for the following reason.

8.25.5

When Demeter was wandering in search of her daughter, she was followed, it is said, by Poseidon, who lusted after her. So she turned, the story runs, into a mare, and grazed with the mares of Oncius; realizing that he was outwitted, Poseidon too changed into a stallion and enjoyed Demeter.

8.25.6

At first, they say, Demeter was angry at what had happened, but later on she laid aside her wrath and wished to bathe in the Ladon. So the goddess has obtained two surnames, Fury because of her avenging anger, because the Arcadians call being wrathful “being furious,” and Bather （Lusia） because she bathed in the Ladon. The images in the temple are of wood, but their faces, hands and feet are of Parian marble.

8.25.7

The image of Fury holds what is called the chest, and in her right hand a torch; her height I conjecture to be nine feet. Lusia seemed to be six feet high. Those who think the image to be Themis and not Demeter Lusia are, I would have them know, mistaken in their opinion. Demeter, they say, had by Poseidon a daughter, whose name they are not wont to divulge to the uninitiated, and a horse called Areion [Ἀρείονα]. For this reason they say that they were the first Arcadians to call Poseidon Horse.

8.25.8

They quote verses from the Iliad and from the Thebaid in confirmation of their story. In the Iliad there are verses about Areion [Ἀρείονα] himself:

"Not even if he drive divine Areion [Ἀρείονα] behind,

The swift horse of Adrastus, who was of the race of the gods." (Hom. Il. 23.346)

In the Thebaid it is said that Adrastus fled from Thebes:

"Wearing wretched clothes, and with him dark-maned Areion [Ἀρείονι]." (Thebaid, unknown location).

They will have it that the verses obscurely hint that Poseidon was father to Areion [Ἀρείονι], but Antimachus says that Earth was his mother:

8.25.9

"Adrastus, son of Talaus, son of Cretheus,

The very first of the Danai to drive his famous horses,

Swift Caerus and Areion [Ἀρείονα] of Thelpusa,

Whom near the grove of Oncean Apollo

Earth herself sent up, a marvel for mortals to see. (Antimachus, unknown location)

8.25.10

But even though sprung from Earth the horse might be of divine lineage and the color of his hair might still be dark. Legend also has it that when Heracles was warring on Elis he asked Oncus for the horse, and was carried to battle on the back of Areion [Ἀρείονι] when he took Elis, but afterwards the horse was given to Adrastus by Heracles. Wherefore Antimachus says about Areion [Ἀρείονα]:

"Adrastus was the third lord who tamed him." (Antimachus, unknown location.)

8.42.1

The second mountain, Mount Elaius, is some thirty stades away from Phigalia, and has a cave sacred to Demeter surnamed Black. The Phigalians accept the account of the people of Thelpusa about the mating of Poseidon and Demeter, but they assert that Demeter gave birth, not to a horse, but to the Mistress, as the Arcadians call her.

Propertius

Elegies

2.37–38

and how Adrastus’ Arion spoke aloud,⁸⁸ the horse which had gained victory⁸⁹ at the funeral games of ill-starred Archemorus:

⁸⁸ When it warned Adrastus of the outcome of the fight (cf. Statius, Theb. 11.442).

⁸⁹ Ridden by Polynices (ib. 6.316) and granted victory by favour of Neptune (ib. 6.529).

Quintus Smyrnaeus

Posthomerica

4.569–573

It was a divine offspring of swift Arion, far the best of all the colts born to Harpyia and roaring Zephyrus; Arion could gallop quickly enough to compete with his father’s swift hurricanes. Adrastus was given it as a gift by the blessed gods.

[Way translation:]

Of swift Arion [Ἀρίονος] ran, the foal begotten

By the loud-piping West-wind on a Harpy,

The fleetest of all earth-born steeds, whose feet

Could race against his father's swiftest blasts.

Him did the Blessed to Adrastus give :

And from him sprang the steed of Sthenelus [son of Capaneus],

Shield of Heracles

Shield of Heracles, 115–121

Most, pp. 10, 11

(115) So he spoke; and Heracles’ force smiled, rejoicing in his spirit, for what he had said pleased him greatly. Answering him he spoke winged words: "Hero Iolaus, nurtured by Zeus, the rough combat is no longer far off. Just as you were valorous earlier, so too keep turning now the great horse, black-maned Arion [Ἀρίονα], in every direction, and help me however you can."

Statius

Thebaid

4.38–43

King Adrastus, sad and sick with weight of cares and nearer to departing years, walks scarce of his own accord amid words of good cheer, content with the steel that girds his side; soldiers bear his shield behind him. His driver grooms the swift horses right at the gate and Arion is already fighting the yoke.

6.301–320

Before them all Arion is led, conspicuous by the fire of his ruddy mane. Neptune was the horse’s father, if our elders’ tale be true. He is said to have been the first to bruise the youngling’s mouth with the bit and break him in on the sand of the shore, sparing the lash; for indeed there was no satisfying the horse’s passion to be moving and he was as changeful as a winter sea. Often he was wont to go in harness with the swimming steeds through Ionian or Libyan deep, carrying his caerulean father to every coast. Outstripped, the Clouds were amazed, East and South Winds emulously follow. Nor less was he on land, bringing Amphitryon’s son [Heracles] through deep-furrowed meadows as he fought Eurystheus’ battles; even for him he was wild and unmanageable. Later by gift of the gods he deigned to obey king Adrastus; and in the years between he had grown much tamer. On this occasion the ruler lets son-in-law Polynices drive him, with many an admonition: when the horse would get excited, with what art he was wont to be soothed, not to handle him harshly nor yet to let him speed free of the rein. ‘Urge others,’ he said, ‘with goads and threats. He will go, and faster than you wish.’

6.424–431

Prescient Arion had sensed that another driver stood pulling the reins and in his innocence had dreaded the fell son of Oedipus. Right from the starting line he was at odds with his burden and angry, more truculent in his ardour than of wont. The children of Inachus think him fired by desire for glory, but it is the driver he flees, the driver he threatens in his wild fury as he looks around for his master all over the field; yet he is ahead of them all.

6.442–444

The Thessalian hero too burns with a closer hope as Arion, unchecked by his master, scatters in rings,

6.491–498

But Phoebus this long while has desired for you the honour he promised, 58 Amphiaraus. Thinking the time at last ripe for favour, he enters the rough 59 spaces of the dusty course, now that the tracks are ending and final victory wavers. The figure of a monster with snaky hair, a dreadful visage, he either moved from Erebus or framed as a device for the nonce; certain it is that he raised this abomination decked with countless terrors into the upper world.

6.501–507

When golden Arion saw [the "monster with snaky hair"], his mane leapt, he rears into his shoulders and stands, suspending from above his yoke-fellow and the partners in their labour on either side along with himself. The Aonian exile straightway plunges and sprawls for a space on his back, till he frees himself from the ties; the chariot, released from guidance, is swept afar.

6.518–520

Then Oecles’ son, albeit sure of the prize had he followed, since Arion in front was masterless, yet still burns with desire to beat the car, empty though it be.

6.528–530

Perhaps Cycnus would have gone ahead and Arion lost, but his father the sea god will not let him lose. So in fair division the horse kept his glory, victory went to the seer.

11.439–443

When [Adrastus] sees his prayers are wasted and the horses galloping to battle in double dust and the madmen fingering their javelin straps, he flees leaving it all behind—camp, men, son-in-law, Thebes—and drives Arion on as he turns in the yoke and warns of Fate;

Strabo

9.2.11

In regard to the Harma in Boeotia, some say that Amphiaraus fell in the battle out of his chariot⁶ near the place where his temple now is, and that the chariot was drawn empty to the place which bears the same name; others say that the chariot of Adrastus, when he was in flight, was smashed to pieces there, but that Adrastus safely escaped on Areion [Ἀρείονος].⁷ But Philochorus⁸ says that Adrastus was saved by the inhabitants of the village, and that on this account they obtained equal rights of citizenship from the Argives.

⁶ "Harma."

⁷ "The fleet horse of Adrastus, of divine descent" (Hom. Il. 23.346).

⁸ See footnote on 9. 1. 6.

Thebaid

fr. 11 West, pp. 52–55

11 Schol. (D) Il. 23.346

11 Scholiast on the Iliad

Poseidon fell in love with Erinys, and changing his form into a horse he had intercourse with her by the fountain Tilphousa in Boeotia. She conceived and gave birth to a horse, which was called Arion [Ἀρίων] because of its supremacy.⁸ Copreus, who was king at Haliartus, a town in Boeotia, received him from Poseidon as a gift. He gave him to Heracles when the latter stayed with him. Heracles used him to compete against Ares’ son Cycnus in a horse race at the shrine of Pagasaean Apollo, which is near Troezen,⁹ and won. Then Heracles gave the foal in turn to Adrastus, and thanks to him Adrastus alone was saved from the Theban war when all the others perished. The story is in the Cyclic poets.

⁸ The name suggested aristos, "best."

⁹ Perhaps an error for "Trachis." Heracles has Arion in his fight against Cycnus in pseudo-Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 120. It is mentioned as Adrastus’ steed, a byword for swiftness, at Il. 23.346.

Paus. 8.25.7–8

Pausanias, Description of Greece

They say that Demeter bore a daughter by Poseidon . . . and the horse Arion . . . And they adduce verses from the Iliad and from the Thebaid as evidence of their tale, saying that in the Iliad it is written of Arion himself . . . and in the Thebaid that Adrastus fled from Thebes,

his clothes in sorry state,¹⁰ with Arion the sable-haired.

So they want the verse to hint that Poseidon was father to Arion.¹¹

Modern

Frazer

p. 291

8.25.4 Demeter — Fury. With the story of the loves of Demeter and Poseidon which follows compare the story told by the Phigalians (Paus. viii. 42). The stories differ in that whereas in the Thelpusian version Demeter gave birth to the horse Arion as well as to a daughter (see § 7),

Gantz

p. 517

... Our only real piece of evidence for that point comes from Pausanias, who says that in the Thebais Adrastos flees Thebes on his horse Areion, wearing "mournful clothing" (8.25.8). ...

Grimal

p. 52 s.v. Areion

(Ἀρείων) The name of Adrastus' horse in the first expedition against Thebes. The horse saved the life of Asrastus, when all of the other heroes who had taken part in the war were killed. After the defeat of the argive army Areion carried his master quickly away rom the battlefield and left him in safety near Colonus in Attica. The speed of Aerion had already been displyaed in the funery games founded in honour Archemorus (See AMPHIARAUS).

The following story was told about Arion's breeding. When Demeter was searching for her daughter, who had been abducted by her uncle, Hades (see PERSEPHONE), Poseidon, who was in love with Demeter, followed her everywhere she went. To rid herself of him, Demeter had the idea of changing herself into a mare and hiding among the horses og King Oncus, at Thelpusa in Arcadia. But Poseidon was not taken in. He himself assumed the likeness of a horse and in this guise mated with her. From this union was born a daughter whose name could not be uttered (she was known as the Lady or the Mistress) and a horse, Areion. The horse belonged to first to Oncus, and then to Heracles, who used it in the expedition against Ellis and the struggle against Cycnus.

p. 474

Areion Paus. 8.42.1ff. 8.25.7ff.; Tzetzes on Lyc. Alex. 153, 766; Hom. Il. 23.356ff. with schol.; Apollod. Bibl. 3.6.8.

Hard

p. 58

(and some very late sources claim that Adrastos' wonder-horse Areion was fathered on a Harpy by Zephyros or Poseidon, although older traditions were quite different, see p. 101).^{227 Suid. s.v. Kyllaros [ Cyllarus Kappa 2659 ] citing Stesichorus; Schol. Il. 23.346, Q.S. 4.569-70.}

p. 101

... and a legend that is no less extraordinary tells how he came to father Areion, the divine horse of Adrastos, by mating with Demeter while the pair of them were in horse-form. As recounted at Thelpousa in Arcadia, where the goddess was honoured as Demeter Erinys, the myth ran as follows. While Demeter was wandering through the world in search of her lost daughter (see pp. 126ff.), Poseidon stalked her in hope of making love to her; and when she tried to escape him by turning herself into a mare and mingling with some horses outside Thelpousa, he assumed the form of a stallion and had intercourse with her. The products of this union were the divine horse Areion or Arion (whose name probably meant 'very swift') and a daughter whose name could be revealed to initiates alone. It was claimed that Demeter had acquired her local title of Erinys (Fury) because she 'had been enraged' at Poseidon's tretent of her (for the verb erineuein could carry that meaning, i.e. to rage like a Fury). ...^{13 Paus. 8.25.4-7; cf. Apollod. 3.6.8 (Demeter mated with him in the form of an Erinys).}

p. 102

Areion was famous in legend from early epic onwards as the horse that carried Adrastos, king of Argos, to safety after his disastrous attack on Thebes (see p. 321). Some claimed that Areion was previously owned by Herakles, who had acquired him from Onkos, king of Thelpousa (or from Kopreus, king of Haliartos near Tilphousa), and later passed him on to Adrastos.^{14 Paus. 8.25-10; schol. Il. 15.639 and 23.346 (Kopreus).} There were alternate accounts in which Posidon fathered Areion by an Erinys near the spring of Tilphousa (see p. 144)...

p. 321

Of all the Argive champions, Asrastos alone escaped, thanks to the speed of his wondrous horse Areion, which was a child of Poseidon and Demeter Erinys (see p. 101).^{149 Thebais fr. 6A Davies (see Paus. 8.25.8; line on Areion quoted), Apollod. 3.6.8, Hyg. Fab. 70.}

Leaf

p. 496, note to 23.346

346. This horse, Adrasti vocalis Arion (Prop. ii. 34. 37), was a favourite character in the Theban cycle, but is quite outside the Homeric myth-world. He was endowed with reason and speech, and was connected with the Arkadian worship of Poseidon and Demeter under equine forms; Paus. viii. 25. 5, where quotations from the Thebais and Antimachos are given. He was also woven into the Herakles-myths, Scut. Herc. 120, etc. MSS. vary between Ἀρίονα and Ἀρείονα: the local form at Thelpusa was Ἐρίων (Head, Hist. Numorum, p. 382).

Parada

s.v. Arion 1

Ἀρείων

A horse given by Heracles 1 to Adrastus 1. Adrastus 1 survived the war against Thebes, saved by his own horse Arion 1.

•a)Poseidon ∞ Demeter

•b)Gaia.-

•c)Zephyrus 1 ∞ Podage.

N.Stat. Theb.4.43., 6.424ff.

D.Pau.8.25.9., Apd. 3.6.8

•a)Apd. 3.6.8. :•b)Pau.8.25.9. :•c)QS.4.569

Smith

s.v. Arion 2

A fabulous horse, which Poseidon begot by Demeter; for in order to escape from the pursuit of Poseidon, the goddess had metamorphosed herself into a mare, and Poseidon deceived her by assuming the figure of a horse. Demeter afterwards gave birth to the horse Arion, and a daughter whose name remained unknown to the uninitiated. (Paus. 8.25.4.) According to the poet Antimachus (apud Paus. l.c.) this horse and Caerus were the offspring of Gaea; whereas, according to other traditions, Poseidon or Zephyrus begot the horse by a Harpy. (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1051; Quint. Smyrn. 4.570.) Another story related, that Poseidon created Arion in his contest with Athena. (Serv. ad Virg. Georg. 1.12.) From Poseidon the horse passed through the hands of Copreus, Oncus, and Heracles, from whom it was received by Adrastus. (Paus. l.c. ; Hesiod. Scut. Here. 120.)

Tripp

p. 101 s.v. Arion, or Areion

A divine horse. While Demeter was seeiking Persephone, Poseidon pursued her. To escape his advances she became a mare among the herds of Oncius in Arcadia, but the horse-god became a stallion and mounted her. Two offspring resulted from this union: a daughter, Despoina, whose name was known only to initiates in the goddess' mysteries, and a horse, Arion. (Some however call him the offspring of Ge.) Fabulously swift, Arion ran with Oncius' herds until Heracles begged for him. Later Heracles gave him to Adrastus. The horse saved his master's life during the war of the SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. His harness mate wss Caerus. [Pausanias 8.25.7-10.]

West

p. 53 n. 9

... Heracles has Arion in his fight against Cycnus in pseudo-Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 120. It is mentioned as Adrastus’ steed, a byword for swiftness, at Il. 23.346.