Arion (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Arion or Areion (Ancient Greek:'Ἀρίων, Ἀρείων, gen.: Ἀρίωνος, Ἀρείωνος) is a divinely-bred, extremely swift immortal horse which, according to the Latin poet Sextus Propertius, was endowed with speech.

Arion's siring by Poseidon in stallion form vary by author: according to the Pseudo-Apollodorus, the horse was foaled by Demeter while she was "in the likeness of a Fury"; Pausanias reported that, according to Antimachus, the horse was the foal of Gaia, the Earth, herself. In the Epic Cycle Arion was mounted most notably by Adrastus, king of Argos.

The earliest literary mention of Arion is in Homer, Iliad, XXIII, 346. Statius also made mention of the horse in his first century Latin epic poem the Thebaid, VI, 301.

Homer
On the subject of Arion, Homer said in the Iliad:


 * "... there is no man that shall catch thee by a burst of speed, neither pass thee by, nay, not though in pursuit he were driving goodly Arion, the swift horse of Adrastus, that was of heavenly stock ...”

Pausanias
Pausanias says:


 * "Demeter, they say, had by Poseidon a daughter, whose name they are not wont to divulge to the uninitiated, and a horse called Areion. For this reason they say that they were the first Arcadians to call Poseidon Horse."

In support of the lineage they advance, Pausanias reports, the Arcadians cite some verses from the Iliad (23.346 quoted above) and the Thebaid (an early Greek epic of uncertain authorship, of which only fragments remain). Pausanius says that "in the Thebaid it is said that Adrastus fled from Thebes: 'Wearing wretched clothes, and with him dark-maned Areion' ". Latin scholia assert that these verses indicate that Neptune was Arion's sire. But Pausanias goes on to quote Antimachus of Colophon as saying that Arion was a child of the Earth (Gaia):


 * "Adrastus, son of Talaus, descendant of Cretheus,
 * The very first of the Danai to drive his famous horses,
 * Swift Caerus and Areion of Thelpusa,
 * Whom near the grove of Oncean Apollo
 * Earth herself sent up a marvel for mortals to see."

According to Pausanius, Heracles, waging war with the Eleans, acquired this horse from Oncus. The son of Zeus would have thus ridden upon Arion when he seized Elis. Thereafter, Heracles gave Arion to Adrastus; this is why Antimachus said of Arion: "Adrastus was the third lord who tamed him."

Pseudo-Apollodorus
The Pseudo-Apollodorus (III, 6, 8) recounts that in the defeat of the Argives, the same battle in which Eteocles and Polynices slew each other, Adrastus alone among the Argive leaders survived, saved by his horse Arion that Demeter, in the likeness of a Fury, had conceived by Poseidon. The scholiasts of the Iliad (XXIII, 347) and of Lycophron (153) attribute to him the same origin.