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. According to Quintus Smyrnaeus, Arion was begotten by loud-piping Zephyrus on a Harpy (probably Podarge).

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 1st-century Latin epic poem the Thebaid, VI, 301.

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

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

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