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Well might the god be fond of the music-loving character of the dolphin, Cf. Mor. 162 f; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xi. 137. to which PindarPage 597, ed. Sandys (L.C.L.); frag. 125, line 69-71 ed. Bowra (O.C.T.); frag. 222. 14-17, ed. Turyn. The quotation is found also in Mor. 704 f - 705 a. The lines were partially recovered in Oxyrhynchus Papyri, iii. 408 b (1903); for the critical difficulties see Turyn’s edition. likens himself, saying that he is roused Like a dolphin of the sea Who on the waveless deep of ocean Is moved by the lovely sound of flutes. Yet it is even more likely that its affection for menPliny, Nat. Hist. x. 24. For Dionysus and the pirate-dolphins see the seventh Homeric Hymn and Frazer on Apollodorus, iii. 5. 3 (L.C.L., vol. i, p. 332). renders it dear to the gods; for it is the only creature who loves man for his own sake. The hunting of dolphins is immoral: Oppian, Hal. v. 416 (see the whole passage). Of the land animals, some avoid man altogether, others, the tamest kind, pay court for utilitarian reasons only to those who feed them, as do dogs and horses and elephants to their familiars. Martins take to houses to get what they need, darkness and a minimum of security, but avoid and fear man as a dangerous wild beast. Cf. Mor. 728 a; but see Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 52; Arrian, Anabasis, i. 25. 8. To the dolphin alone, beyond all others, nature has granted what the best philosophers seek: friendship for no advantage. Though it has no need at all of any man, yet it is a genial friend to all and has helped many. The story of ArionHerodotus, i. 24; Mair on Oppian, Hal. v. 448. In Mor. 161 a ff. the story is told by an eye-witness at the banquet of the Seven Wise Men. is familiar to everyone and widely known; and you, my friend, opportunely put us in mind of the tale of Hesiod, Cf. 969 e supra. But you failed to reach the end of the tale.Homer, Iliad, ix. 56. When you told of the dog, you should not have left out the dolphins, for the information of the dog that barked and rushed with a snarl on the murderers would have been meaningless if the dolphins had not taken up the corpse as it was floating on the sea near the NemeonThe shrine of Zeus at Oeneon in Locris. and zealously passed it from group to group until they put it ashore at Rhium and so made it clear that the man had been stabbed.
