inth, who began to reign B.C. 625.
Nothing is known of his life beyond the beautiful story of his escape
from the sailors with whom he sailed from Sicily to Corinth. On one
occasion, thus runs the story, Arion went to Sicily to take part in a
musical contest. He won the prize, and, laden with presents, he
embarked in a Corinthian ship to return to his friend Periander. The
rude sailors coveted his treasures, and meditated his murder. After
imploring them in vain to spare his life, he obtained permission to
play for the last time on his beloved lyre. In festal attire he placed
himself on the prow of the vessel, invoked the gods in inspired
strains, and then threw himself into the sea. But many song-loving
dolphins had assembled round the vessel, and one of them now took the
bard on its back, and carried him to Taenarum, from whence he returned
to Corinth in safety, and related his adventure to Periander. Upon the
arrival of the Corinthian vessel, Periander inquired of the sailors
after Arion, who replied that he had remained behind at Tarentum; but
when Arion, at the bidding of Periander, came forward, the sailors
owned their guilt, and were punished according to their desert. The
great improvement in lyric poetry ascribed to Arion is the invention of
the Dithyramb. This was a choral song and dance in honour of the god
Dionysus, and is of great interest in the history of poetry, since it
was the germ from which sprung at a later time the magnificent
productions of the tragic Muse at Athens.

ALCAEUS and SAPPHO were both natives of Mytilene in the island of
Lesbos, and flourished about B.C. 610-580. Their songs were composed
for a single voice, and not for the chorus, and they were each the
inventor of a new metre, which bears their name, and is familiar to us
by the well-known odes of Horace. Their poetry was the warm outpouring
of the writers' inmost feelings, and present the lyric poetry of the
AEolians at its highest point.

Alcaeus took an active part in the civil dissensions of his native
state, and warmly espoused the cause of the aristocratical party, to
which he belonged by birth. When the nobles were driven into exile, he
endeavoured to cheer their spirits by a number of most animated odes,
full of invectives against the popular party and its leaders.

Of the events of Sappho's life we have scarcely any information; and
the common story that, being in love with Phaon and finding her love
unrequite