[192] Il., vii. 451.
[193] Plutarch’s account (Sept. Sap. Conviv., ch. 19) varies in many details; notably, (1) it acquits Hesiod of seduction, (2) the brothers of flight, (3) the maiden of hanging herself.
[194] Translated by C. A. Elton. In the last two lines occurs the solitary mention by Hesiod of fishing.
[195] From the fish (in old English daulphin) came apparently the title of the eldest son of the kings of France from 1349 to 1830. According to Littré the name Dauphin, borne by the lords of the Viennois, was the proper name Delphinus (the same word as the name of the fish), whence the province subject to them was called Dauphiné. Humbert III., on ceding the province, made it a condition that the title should be perpetuated by being borne by the eldest son of the French king. A. Brachet, An Etymological Dict. of the French Language3 (Oxford, 1883), p. 113, states that the title—peculiar to S. France—first appears in 1140: “the origin is obscure, though it certainly represents the Delphinus.”
[196] Lucian (Dialogues of the Sea Gods, VIII.) offers an unexpected explanation of this trait. On Poseidon’s commending the fish for the rescue of Arion, the Dolphin makes answer: “You need not be surprised to find us doing a good turn to Man: we were men before we were fishes.”
[197] Pindar (frag. 235 Bergk4, 140b, 68 ff., Schroeder) likens himself to the dolphin,
“Which flutes’ beloved sound Excites to play Upon the calm and placid sea.”
Pliny (Delphin edition, 1826, which I use throughout), IX. 8. Suetonius, Nero 41.
[198] Herodotus, I. 24. Pausanias, III. 25. Plutarch, Sept. Sap. Conviv., 18. Cf. Lucian’s characteristic account, op. cit., VIII.
[199] S. Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints (London, 1897), vol. x. 385.