Histories

But the crew would not listen to him, and told him either to kill himself and so receive burial on land or else to jump into the sea at once.

Abandoned to this extremity, Arion asked that, since they had made up their minds, they would let him stand on the half-deck in all his regalia and sing; and he promised that after he had sung he would do himself in.

The men, pleased at the thought of hearing the best singer in the world, drew away toward the waist of the vessel from the stern. Arion, putting on all his regalia and taking his lyre, stood up on the half-deck and sang the “Stirring Song,”[*](The o)/rqios no/mos was a high-pitched (and apparently very well-known) song or hymn in honor of Apollo.) and when the song was finished he threw himself into the sea, as he was with all his regalia.