Herodotus, Histories 1.24.8 · 1.24.8
A bronze man on a dolphin
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ταῦτα μέν νυν Κορίνθιοί τε καὶ Λέσβιοι λέγουσι, καὶ Ἀρίονος ἐστὶ ἀνάθημα χάλκεον οὐ μέγα ἐπὶ Ταινάρῳ, ἐπὶ δελφῖνος ἐπεὼν ἄνθρωπος.
That is the story the Corinthians and Lesbians tell; and there is a small bronze offering dedicated by Arion at Taenarum, a man riding on a dolphin.
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The setting
Herodotus closes the story as he opened it, with his sources, and adds one thing he can point to.
A note on this passage
The story ends where it began, with its sources: "that is what the Corinthians and the Lesbians say." Herodotus has held the dolphin at arm's length from the first sentence to the last. But he adds one thing that is not hearsay. At Taenarum, the southern cape where the dolphin is said to have landed, there is a small bronze of a man on a dolphin, an offering of Arion's.
It is a characteristic move. He cannot prove the miracle, and he does not try. He can point to an object that anyone who sails round the Peloponnese can go and see, and let the reader weigh the two together: a story told by two peoples, and a statue that says the same thing. A modern reader might reply that the statue could have produced the story rather than the other way round. Herodotus gives you exactly enough to ask that.
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Herodotus, Histories 1.24.8 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/herodotus/1.24.8/