Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/252

180 in their resolution, Arion begged permission to play a tune upon his lute before he should be put to death. The melody of the instrument attracted a number of dolphins around the ship. He immediately precipitated himself into the sea, when one of them, it is asserted, carried him safe on his back to Tænarus, a promontory of Laconia, in Peloponnesus, whence he hastened to the court of Periander, who ordered all the sailors to be crucified at their return."

Spenser pays the following tribute to the friendly dolphins:

The dolphin is also said to have performed a friendly service in the cause of Justice. Hesiod, the famous poet, having been slain and his body cast into the sea, the dolphins recovered the body and conveyed it to the shore. Here it was found by his friends, who hunted down the assassins aided by the poet's dogs, and put them to death by drowning in the sea into which they had thrown Hesiod.

A curious coincidence is revealed by this legend, for here we find the dolphin identified with the preservation of a corpse, and the constellation is popularly known as "Job's Coffin." There can hardly be any connection between these similar allusions, as in all probability the title "Job's