Editing Arion (section)

=== Mythological parallels ===
The pirates episode may be seen as a doublet of the fate of [[Melicertes]], where the leap into the sea was that of his mother, Ino, transformed into the "white goddess" [[Leucothea]]. Melicertes was carried more dead than alive to the shores where the [[Isthmian Games]] were celebrated in his honour, as he was transformed to the hero Palaimon, who was placated with a nocturnal chthonic rite, and the whose winners were crowned with a barren wreath of spruce.<ref>Burkert 1983:198f. "To [[Plutarch]] this seemed more a mystery initiation (τελετή) than an athletic and folk festival" (p 197).</ref>

A similar story of told of the founding of [[Taranto|Taras]] in Megale Hellas ([[Magna Graecia]]), modern Taranto, Apulia, Italy. When a son of Poseidon called Taras was shipwrecked, his father rescued him by sending a dolphin which he rode to traverse the sea from the promontory of Taenarum to the south of Italy. Brought ashore, Taras founded the city of the same name.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newworldtreasures.com/dolphin.htm|title=Boy On A Dolphin Ancient Greek Coin Jewelry|website=Newworldtreasures.com|access-date=26 June 2019}}</ref> According to [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], he was worshiped as a hero who named both the city and the river, Taras after himself.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' 10. 10. 8</ref>

Another parallel is the myth of Dionysus and the sailors, related in the [[Homeric Hymns]]: Tyrrhenian pirates try to lash the god to the mast, but the wood itself starts to sprout and the mast is entwined with ivy (like the god's [[thyrsus]]); the sailors leap into the sea and are transformed into dolphins. This is especially interesting because Arion is credited with the invention of the [[dithyramb]], a dionysiac song form.