Arion's siring by Poseidon in stallion form vary by author: according to the Pseudo-Apollodorus, the horse was foaled by Demeter while she was "in the likeness of a Fury"; Pausanias reported that, according to Antimachus, the horse was the foal of Gaia, the Earth, herself. In the Epic Cycle Arion was mounted most notably by Adrastus, king of Argos. The earliest literary mention of Arion is in Homer, Iliad, XXIII, 346. Statius also made mention of the horse in his 1st century Latin epic poem the Thebaid, VI, 301.