Editing Marsyas (section)

===The finding of the aulos===
[[File:Altar Atrosokes MNAT M7010 n04.jpg|thumb|[[Hellenistic art|Hellenistic]] Marsyas playing the [[aulos]], with dedication in Greek to the god [[Oxus (god)|Oxus]], by "Atrosokes", a [[Greco-Bactria|Bactrian]] name. Temple of the [[Oxus]], [[Takht-i Sangin]], 200-150 BC. [[National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan]].<ref name="BAL">{{cite journal |last1=LITVINSKII |first1=B. A. |last2=PICHIKIAN |first2=I. R. |title=The Hellenistic Architecture and Art of the Temple of the Oxus |journal=Bulletin of the Asia Institute |date=1994 |volume=8 |pages=47–66 |jstor=24048765 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/24048765.pdf |issn=0890-4464}}</ref><ref name="RW2011">{{cite journal |last1=Wood |first1=Rachel |title=Cultural convergence in Bactria: the votives from the Temple of the Oxus at Takht-i Sangin, in "From Pella to Gandhara" |journal=In A. Kouremenos, S. Chandrasekaran & R. Rossi ed. 'From Pella to Gandhara: Hybridization and Identity in the Art and Architecture of the Hellenistic East' |date=2011 |publisher=Archaeopress |location=Oxford |pages=141–151 |url=https://www.academia.edu/3850105}}</ref>]]
Marsyas was an expert player on the double-piped [[double reed instrument]] known as the [[aulos]].<ref name="West"/> The dithyrambic poet [[Melanippides|Melanippides of Melos]] ({{circa}} 480 – 430 BC) embellished the story in his [[dithyramb]] ''Marsyas'',<ref>quoted in [[Athenaeus]]' [[Deipnosophistae]], 14.616e</ref><ref name="Poehlmann2017">{{citation|last=Poehlmann|first=Egert|date=2017|chapter=Aristotle on Music and Theatre (''Politics'' VIII 6. 1340 b 20 - 1342 b 34; ''Poetics'')|title=Theatre World: Critical Perspectives on Greek Tragedy and Comedy. Studies in Honour of Georgia Xanthakis-Karamenos|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6e05DwAAQBAJ&q=Athena+and+Marsyas&pg=PA330|editor1-last=Fountoulakis|editor1-first=Andreas|editor2-last=Markantonatos|editor2-first=Andreas|editor3-last=Vasilaros|editor3-first=Georgios|location=Berlin, Germany|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-051896-2|page=330}}</ref> claiming that the goddess [[Athena]], who was already said to have invented the aulos, once looked in the mirror while she was playing it and saw how blowing into it puffed up her cheeks and made her look silly, so she threw the aulos away and cursed it so that whoever picked it up would meet an awful death.<ref name="Poehlmann2017"/> Marsyas picked up the aulos and was later killed by Apollo for his [[hubris]].<ref name="Poehlmann2017"/> The fifth-century BC poet Telestes doubted that virginal Athena could have been motivated by such vanity.<ref>Telestes, Fr. 805, quoted in [[Athenaeus]]' ''[[Deipnosophistae]]'' 616f</ref>

Later, however, Melanippides's story became accepted as canonical <ref name="Poehlmann2017"/> and the Athenian sculptor [[Myron]] created a group of bronze sculptures based on it, which was installed before the western front of the Parthenon around 440 BC.<ref name="Poehlmann2017"/> In the second century AD, the travel writer [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] saw this set of sculptures and described it as "a statue of Athena striking Marsyas the Silenos for taking up the flutes [aulos] that the goddess wished to be cast away for good".<ref>Pausanias, i.24.1.</ref>