Dolphins appear in a number of Greek myths, invariably as helpers of humankind. Dolphins also seem to have been important to the Minoans, judging by artistic evidence from the ruined palace at Knossos.
A dolphin rescued the poet Arion from drowning and carried him safe to land, at Cape Taenarum, now Cape Matapan, a promontory forming the southernmost point of the Peloponnesus. There was a temple to Poseidon and a statue of Arion riding the dolphin. (Herodotus I.23; Thucydides I.128, 133; Pausanias iii.25, 4)
The Greeks reimagined the Phoenician god Melqart as Melikertês (Melicertes) and made him the son of Athamas and Ino. He drowned but was transfigured as the marine deity Palaemon, while his mother became Leucothea. (cfIno.) At Corinth, he was so closely connected with the cult of Poseidon that the Isthmian Games, originally instituted in Poseidon's honor, came to be looked upon as the funeral games of Melikertes.
Phalanthus was another legendary character brought safely to shore (in Italy) on the back of a dolphin, according to Pausanias.
Many seals and coins show a man or boy riding a dolphin.
One of the earliest and best-known ornamentations is the 3,500 year old dolphin fresco on the wall of the Queen's bathroom in the ancient palace of Knossos on the island of Crete.
Dolphins were part of Greek culture for thousands of years and are present in artworks wherever the Greeks had influence, from Rome to Mesopotamia.
One of the earliest and best-known ornamentations is the dolphin fresco on the wall of the Queen's bathroom in the ancient palace of Knossos on the island of Crete.
The dolphin’s intelligence, playfulness, and friendliness, its built-in smile and merry-looking eyes have been a source of interest and enchantment to human beings from earliest times; it is a common figure in mythology and literature and has been much depicted in art, especially in the posture of its graceful, arched, 30-ft (9-m) leap.
Dolphins have long been famous for riding the bows of ships, and it is now known that they also ride the bows of large whales.
Dolphins communicate by means of a demonstrably descriptive language understood by more than one species, using all the sounds in their repertory.
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