Editing Marsyas (section)

=== Marsyas and Apollo ===
[[File:José_de_Ribera_003.jpg|thumb|left|Apollo flaying Marsyas in ''[[Apollo and Marsyas (Ribera)|Apollo and Marsyas]]'' by [[José de Ribera]]]]
[[File:Peter Paul Rubens - Marsyas tied.jpg|thumb|left|''Marsyas tied'', by [[Peter Paul Rubens]], [[Louvre Museum]]]]
In the contest between Apollo and Marsyas, which was judged by the [[Muse]]s or the Nysean nymphs,<ref name="auto">Diodorus Siculus, ''Library of History'' 5. 75. 3</ref><ref>Tmolus was judge in another musical contest, that of Apollo and [[Pan (mythology)|Pan]].</ref> the terms stated that the winner could treat the defeated party any way he wanted. Marsyas played his flute, putting everyone there into a frenzy, and they started dancing wildly. When it was Apollo's turn, he played his lyre so beautifully that everyone was still and had tears in their eyes.  
[[File:Attributed to Veronese, Apollo and Marsyas, NGA 54011.jpg|alt=pen and ink sketch on blue paper of Apollo tying Marsyas up |thumb|Apollo and Marsyas, attributed to [[Paolo Veronese]], [[National Gallery of Art]]]]
There are several versions of the contest; according to Hyginus, Marsyas was departing as victor after the first round, when Apollo, turning his lyre upside down, played the same tune. This was something that Marsyas could not do with his flute. According to Diodorus Siculus, Marsyas was defeated when Apollo added his voice to the sound of the lyre. Marsyas protested, arguing that the skill with the instrument was to be compared, not the voice. However, Apollo replied that when Marsyas blew into the pipes, he was doing almost the same thing. The Nysean nymphs supported Apollo's claim, leading to his victory.<ref name="auto"/><ref>The most elaborated accounts are given by Diodorus Siculus ''Library of History'', [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]] (''Fabulae'', 165) and Pseudo-Apollodorus' ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheke]]'' (i.4.2); see also [[Pliny's Natural History]] 16.89.</ref>

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.<ref>Philostratus the Younger, Imagines 2 (trans. Fairbanks)</ref>

He was [[flaying|flayed]] alive in a cave near Celaenae for his [[hubris]] to challenge a deity. Apollo then nailed Marsyas' skin to a pine tree,<ref>-Apollodorus, ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheke]]''i.4.2</ref> near [[Lake Aulocrene]] (''Karakuyu Gölü'' in modern Turkey), which [[Strabo]] noted was full of the [[Reed (plant)|reeds]] from which the pipes were fashioned.<ref>Strabo, ''Geography'' xii.8.15; {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070303182104/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/gazetteer/0063.html Hazlitt, ''The Classical Gazetteer'' ''s.v.'' "Aulocrene lac."]}}</ref> [[Diodorus Siculus]] felt that Apollo must have repented this "excessive" deed, and said that he had laid aside his lyre for a while,<ref>Diodorus, ''Library of History'' v.75.3.</ref> but [[Karl Kerenyi]] observes of the flaying of Marsyas' "shaggy hide: a penalty which will not seem especially cruel if one assumes that Marsyas' animal guise was merely a masquerade".<ref>[[Karl Kerenyi]], ''The Gods of the Greeks'' 1951:179.</ref> Classical Greeks were unaware of such [[shaman]]istic overtones, and the flaying of Marsyas became a theme for painting and sculpture.  His brothers, nymphs, gods, and goddesses mourned his death, and their tears, according to [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses]]'', were the source of the river [[Marsyas (river of Phrygia)|Marsyas]] in [[Phrygia]] (called Çine Creek today), which joins the [[Büyük Menderes River|Meander]] near Celaenae, where Herodotus reported that the flayed skin of Marsyas was still to be seen,<ref>Herodotus, ''Histories'' vii.26.3.</ref> and [[Ptolemy Hephaestion]] recorded a "festival of Apollo, where the skins of all those victims one has flayed are offered to the god".<ref>Ptolemy Hephaestion, ''New History'' iii, summarised by [[Photios I of Constantinople|Photius]], ''Myriobiblon'' 190.</ref>

[[Plato]] was of the opinion that the skin of Marsyas had been made into a [[wineskin]].<ref>Plato, ''''[[Euthydemus (dialogue)|Euthydemus]]'', 285c.</ref>
[[File:Apollo flaying Marsyas by Antonio Corradini (1658-1752), V&A.JPG|thumb|''Apollo flaying Marsyas'' by Antonio Corradini (1658–1752), [[Victoria and Albert Museum]], [[London]]]]

[[Ovid]] touches upon the theme of Marsyas twice, very briefly telling the tale in ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' vi.383–400, where he concentrates on the tears shed into the river Marsyas, and making an [[allusion]] in ''[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]]'', vi.649–710, where Ovid's primary focus is on the ''aulos'' and the roles of flute-players rather than Marsyas, whose name is not mentioned.