Arion (mythology) - Pausanias

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). Pausanias 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 Pausanias, 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."