Marsyas

• 1. The Satyr And The Aulos

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  A young satyr named Marsyas stood near the river Meander in Phrygia. He found a double reed instrument called an aulos lying on the ground. The goddess Athena had discarded it after seeing her reflection while playing. She cursed anyone who picked up the pipes to meet an awful death. Marsyas ignored the warning and began to play. His skill was so great that he became an expert player of the double-piped instrument. Later, the dithyrambic poet Melanippides of Melos embellished this story around 450 BC. He claimed the goddess threw away the flute because blowing into it made her look silly. The fifth-century BC poet Telestes doubted that virginal Athena could have been motivated by vanity. Despite these doubts, the story became accepted as canonical.

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• 2. The Contest And Flaying

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  Marsyas challenged Apollo to a musical contest in a cave near Celaenae. The terms stated that the winner could treat the defeated party any way he wanted. Marsyas played his flute and put everyone there into a frenzy. They started dancing wildly when the music filled the air. When it was Apollo's turn, he played his lyre so beautifully that everyone was still and had tears in their eyes. Diodorus Siculus recorded that Marsyas protested when Apollo added his voice to the sound of the lyre. The Nysean nymphs supported Apollo's claim, leading to his victory. Yet another version states that Marsyas played the flute out of tune and hence accepted his defeat. Out of shame, he chose the penalty of being skinned to be used as a winesack. He was flayed alive in a cave near Celaenae for his hubris to challenge a deity. Apollo then nailed Marsyas' skin to a pine tree near Lake Aulocrene. His brothers, nymphs, gods, and goddesses mourned his death. Their tears formed the river Marsyas in Phrygia according to Ovid's Metamorphoses.

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• 3. Genealogies And Regional Origins

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  Scholars analyze conflicting ancient genealogies linking Marsyas to figures like Hyagnis or Olympus. When a genealogy was applied to him, Marsyas was the son of the divine Hyagnis. Nonnus wrote in Dionysiaca 10.233 that his father was called Oeagrus or Olympus. Apollodorus stated in 1.4.2 that the latter was said to be Marsyas' son and/or pupil and eromenos. Pseudo-Plutarch noted this relationship in On Music 7. The mythographers situate his episodes in Celaenae or Kelainai in Phrygia. This location marks the main source of the Meander river in modern Turkey. Herodotus linked the river to the figure of Marsyas in Histories 7.26. Xenophon also mentioned the connection in Anabasis 1.2.8. One strand of modern comparative mythography regards the domination of Marsyas by Apollo as an example of myth that recapitulates a supposed supplanting by the Olympian pantheon of an earlier Pelasgian religion. Ruck and Staples published their analysis in 1994 regarding these chthonic heroic ancestors.

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• 4. Roman Liberty And Political Symbolism

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  Among the Romans, Marsyas was cast as the inventor of augury and a proponent of free speech. The earliest known representation of Marsyas at Rome stood for at least 300 years in the Roman Forum near the comitium. It served as a sort of kiosk upon which invective verse was posted. Servius described the statue as carrying a wineskin on his left shoulder and raising his right arm. The statue was regarded as an indicium libertatis, a symbol of liberty. Gnaeus Naevius declared at the Liberalia games that they enjoyed free speech. He wrote libera lingua loquimur ludis Liberalibus. Nonetheless, Naevius was arrested for his invectives against the powerful. In 294 BC, Gaius Marcius Rutilus dedicated the statue when he became the first plebeian censor. He added the cognomen Censorinus to the family name. L. Marcius Censorinus issued coins depicting the statue during the Sullan civil wars of the 80s BC. Sulla increased the number of augurs and attempted to curtail power invested in the people. On the coin, Marsyas wears a Phrygian cap or pilleus, an emblem of liberty.

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• 5. Comparative Mythology And Religious Supplanting

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  Modern academic theories interpret the conflict as a metaphor for the Olympian replacement of older chthonic religious traditions. Diodorus Siculus referred to Marsyas as admired for his intelligence and self-control. Jocelyn Small identified in Marsyas an artist great enough to challenge a deity who could only be defeated through ruse. She published her findings in Cacus and Marsyas in Etrusco-Roman Legend in 1962. The power relations between Marsyas and Apollo reflected the continuing Struggle of the Orders between the elite and the common people. This struggle expressed political terms by optimates and populares. The Social War of 91, 88 BC is sometimes called the Marsic War because of the leadership of the Marsi. Roman cities like Paestum and Alba Fucens set up their own statues of Marsyas as assertions of their political status. Servius noted that among free cities there was a statue of Marsyas under the protection of Father Liber. These deities were regarded as concerning themselves specially with the welfare of the plebs.

• 6. Artistic Depictions From Antiquity To Modernity

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  A survey of visual art traces the evolution of the Marsyas theme from Greek sculpture through Renaissance paintings to contemporary installations. Pliny indicated that in the first century AD, the painting Marsyas religatus by Zeuxis of Heraclea could be viewed at the Temple of Concordia in Rome. A sarcophagus depicting the competition dates to around 300 CE and was discovered in 1853 on the bank of the river Chiarone in Tuscany. Paintings taking Marsyas as a subject include works by Michelangelo Anselmi and Jusepe de Ribera. Titian created The Flaying of Marsyas between 1570 and 1576. Bartolomeo Manfredi painted Apollo and Marsyas for the St. Louis Art Museum. Luca Giordano also depicted the scene around 1665. In 2002, British artist Anish Kapoor created an enormous sculpture in London's Tate Modern entitled Marsyas. It consisted of three huge steel rings and a single red PVC membrane. James Merrill based a poem named Marsyas on this myth in his 1959 collection. Hugo Claus wrote Marsua included in the 1955 poem collection Oostakkerse Gedichten.

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