Dialogues of the Gods (5.2-7.2)

DOLPHIN

Periander was fond of him, I believe, and would be continually sending for him to perform. But when the tyrant had made him a rich man, Arion became eager to sail off home to Methymna and show off his riches. So he embarked on a passage-boat,

but the crew were scoundrels, and, when he let them see that he had a great deal of gold and silver with him, they plotted against him in mid Aegean. But—I heard it all, for I was swimming alongside the ship—he said to them, “Since your minds are made up, at least allow me to put on my robes and sing my own dirge, and then I’ll be willing to throw myself into the sea.” The crew agreed; he dressed up and sang a beautiful song, and jumped into the sea to ensure a quick death if nothing else. But I caught him up, and put him on my back and swam all the way to Taenarum with him.

POSEIDON

Your love of music does you great credit. You paid him well for the song you heard.

POSEIDON

Let this strait, where the girl [*] fell from the skies, be called Hellespont after her. You, Nereids, take the body to the Troad, so that it can be buried by people there.

AMPHITRITE

Please not that, Poseidon, but let her be buried here in the sea named after her. We feel very sorry for the pitiable way she was treated by her step-mother. [*]

POSEIDON

That would be wrong, Amphitrite, and it’s not quite the thing either to leave her lying here under the sand; no, she’ll be buried, as I said, in the Troad or the Chersonese. She’ll find it no small consolation that, before long, the same thing will happen to Ino; she’ll be pursued by Athamas, and plunge into the sea with her child [*] in her arms from the heights of Cithaeron where a ridge runs down into the sea. But we must save Ino to please Dionysus; for she was his nurse and his nanny.

AMPHITRITE

You shouldn’t save a bad woman like that!

POSEIDON

But, Amphitrite, we mustn’t offend Dionysus.

NEREIDS

But what came over her that she fell from the ram, while Phrixus, her brother, is having a safe ride?

POSEIDON

That’s natural; he’s a young man and can withstand the speed; but she has no experience, and when she got on that strange mount, and looked down into the gaping depths beneath her, she was terrified, and, overcome at the same time by the heat, and growing dizzy at the speed of the flight, lost hold of the ram’s horns, to which she’d been clinging, and fell into the sea.

NEREIDS

But shouldn’t Nephele, her mother, have helped her when she was falling?

POSEIDON

Yes, indeed, but Fate is far stronger than Nephele.

PANOPE

Did you see, Galene, what Discord did yesterday at the banquet in Thessaly, because she wasn’t invited?

GALENE

I wasn’t with you people in person at the banquet. For Poseidon had told me, my dear Panope, to keep the sea calm while it lasted. But what did the absent Discord do?

PANOPE

Thetis and Peleus had already left and gone to their chamber, escorted by Amphitrite and Poseidon. Meanwhile Discord had crept in unseen by all—that was easy enough, with the guests drinking, applauding, or listening to Apollo’s playing or the Muses’ singing—and she threw a beautiful apple amongst the guests—an apple of solid gold, my dear, with the inscription “For the queen of Beauty”. The apple rolled, as if aimed, to where Hera, Aphrodite

and Athena were at table.

PANOPE

Then Hermes picked it up, and read out the inscription, but we Nereids held our tongues. What could we do when such august ladies were present? Each of them laid claim to the apple, insisting it should rightly be hers, and it would have come to blows, if Zeus hadn’t parted them, saying, “I won’t judge this matter myself”,—though they kept insisting he should—“but you go to Priam’s son [*] on Ida. He knows how to decide between beauties, for he’s a connoisseur of beauty; his verdict is bound to be right.”

GALENE

And what have the goddesses done, Panope?

PANOPE

They’ll be going to Ida today, I believe, and we’ll soon have a messenger with news of the winner.

GALENE

I can tell you that now. Only Aphrodite can win, if she competes—unless the umpire is very short-sighted.