Solon was one of the seven wise men of Greece, who all lived at the same time.  The other six were Thales, Bion, Pittacus, Cleobulus, Chilo, and Periander.  This last was called Tyrant of Corinth.  When the ancient Greeks spoke of a tyrant, they did not mean a cruel king so much as a king who had not been heir to the crown, but had taken to himself the rule over a free people.  A very curious story belongs to Periander, for we have not quite parted with the land of fable.  It is about the poet Arion, who lived chiefly with him at Corinth, but made one voyage to Sicily.  As he was coming back, the sailors plotted to throw him overboard, and divide the gifts he was bringing with him.  When he found they were resolved, he only begged to play once more on his lyre; then, standing on the prow, he played and sung a hymn calling the gods to his aid.  So sweet were the sounds that shoals of dolphins came round the ship, and Arion, leaping from the prow, placed himself on the back of one, which bore him safely to land.  Periander severely punished the treacherous sailors.  Some think that this story was a Greek alteration of the history of Jonah, which might have been brought by the Phœnician sailors.