![]() During the contest Apollon played lyre in a reverse position, and invited Marsyas to do the same. It was decided that the winner could do whatever he wanted with the loser. ![]() This fellow had come upon the flute which Athene had thrown away because it made her face misshapen, and he proceeded to face Apollon in a musical contest. "Apollon also slew Marsyas, the son of Olympos. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) : Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.ĬLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES Artemis and Marsyas, Lucanian red-figure skyphos fragment C5th B.C., Metropolitan Museum of Art This statue was the place of assembly for the courtezans of Rome, who used to crown it with chaplets of flowers. 28.) The statue of Marsyas in the forum of Rome is well known by the allusions of Horace ( Sat. 528.) It seems more likely that the statue, standing in the place where justice was administered, was intended to hold forth an example of the severe punishment of arrogant presumption. 4.) In the fora of ancient cities there was frequently placed a statue of Marsyas, with one hand erect, in token, according to Servius, of the freedom of the state, since Marsyas was a minister of Bacchus, the god of liberty. 97), and formed a favourite subject for works of art. The story of Marsyas was often referred to by the lyric and epigrammatic poets (Bode, Gesch. c.) actually calls him Seilenus, and other writers connect him with Dionysus. c.), and he occupies, in fact, the same place in the orgiastic worship of Cybele that Seilenus does in the worship of Dionysus: Pausanias ( l. He is spoken of as a follower of Cybele (Diod. 56.) By a confusion between the mythical and the historical, the flute-player Olympus is made his son, or by some his father. He is made by some the inventor of the flute, by others of the double flute. It is easy to apply this explanation to the different parts of the legend and it may be further illustrated by other traditions respecting Marsyas. 382, 400.) The fable evidently refers to the struggle between the citharoedic and auloedic styles of music, of which the former was connected with the worship of Apollo among the Dorians, and the latter with the orgiastic rites of Cybele in Phrygia. His flutes (for, according to some, the instrument on which he played was the double flute) were carried by the river Marsyas into the Maeander, and again emerging in the Asopus, were thrown on land by it in the Sicyonian territory, and were dedicated to Apollo in his temple at Sicyon. His blood was the source of the river Marsyas, and Apollo hung up his skin in the cave out of which that river flows. As a just punishment for the presumption of Marsyas, Apollo bound him to a tree, and flayed him alive. Apollo played upon the cithara, and Marsyas upon the flute and it was not till the former added his voice to the music of his lyre that the contest was decided in his favour. The Muses, or, according to others, the Nysaeans, were the umpires. Elated by his success, Marsyas was rash enough to challenge Apollo to a musical contest, the conditions of which were that the victor should do what he pleased with the vanquished. ![]() It was picked up by Marsyas, who no sooner began to blow through it than the flute, having once been inspired by the breath of a goddess, emitted of its own accord the most beautiful strains. Athena having, while playing the flute, seen the reflection of herself in water, and observed the distortion of her features, threw away the instrument in disgust. The following is the outline of his story, according to the mythographers. He is variously called the son of Hyagnis, or of Oeagrus, or of Olympus. MA′RSYAS (Marsuas), a mythological personage, connected with the earliest period of Greek music. OLYMPOS (Apollodorus 1.24, Ovid Metamorphoses 6.382) ![]() Marsyas was also connected with the flute-playing Tityroi satyrs in the train of the god Dionysos. The story of Marsyas' contest with Apollon is sometimes told of the Arkadian god Pan. The rustic gods then transformed him into a stream. ![]() As punishment for his hubris, Apollon had Marsyas tied to a tree and flayed alive. Marsyas later challenged the god Apollon to a musical contest but lost when the god demanded they play their instruments upside-down in the second round-a feat ill-suited to the flute. He found the very first flute which had been crafted but cast away by the goddess Athena who had been displeased by the bloating of the cheeks. MARSYAS was a Phrygian Satyr who invented the music of the flute. Marsyas (detail), Paestan red-figure lekanis C4th B.C., Musée du Louvre ![]()
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