At a party a lyre was passed around, and the others, one after the other, tuned it and sang, but the king ordered his horse to be led in, and nimbly and easily leapt upon its back. Cf. Themistocles’ boast, to which he resorted in self-defence under similarly embarrassing circumstances, in Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles , chap. ii. (112 C).