Marsyas
Marsyas, a satyr, flayed by Apollo
Could not find Marsyam in Logeion dictionaries.
Marsyam Proper-name noun: masculine accusative singular of Marsyas
- a satyr who challenged Apollo to a trial of skill on the flute, and whom the latter vanquished and flayed alive, Liv. 38, 13, 6; Ov. F. 6, 705; id. M. 6, 383; Ap. Flor. 1, 3, p. 113; Luc. 3, 207; Stat. Th. 4, 186; near his statue in the Roman forum was the place for the transaction of business, Hor. S. 1, 6, 120; Mart. 2, 64, 8; Sen. de Ben. 6, 32, 1; cf. Juv. 9, 2.
- A river in Greater Phrygia, which flows into the Maeander, now Tschinar Tchai, Ov. M. 6, 400; Liv. 38, 13, 6.—
- II The name of two rivers in Syria, Plin. 5, 23, 19, § 81; id. 5, 24, 21, § 86.
(Μαρσύας), a mythological personage, connected with the earliest period of Greek music. He is variously called the son of Hyagnis, or of Oeagrus, or of Olympus. Some make him a satyr, others a peasant. All agree in placing him in Phrygia. The following is the outline of his story, according to the mythographers. 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. 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. 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. The Muses, or, according to others, the Nysaeans, were the umpires. 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. As a just punishment for the presumption of Marsyas, Apollo bound him to a tree, and flayed him alive. His blood was the source of the river Marsyas, and Apollo hung up his skin in the cave out of which that river flows. 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. (Apollod. 1.4.2; Palaeph. de Incredib. 48; Liban. Narrat. 14, p. 1104; Nonn. Narrat. ad Greg. Invect. 2.10, p. 164; Diod. 3.58, 59; Paus. 2.7.9; Hdt. 7.26; Xen. Anab. 1.2.8; Plut. de Fluv. 10; Hyg. Fab. 165; Ovid, Metam. 6.382, 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. 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. He is made by some the inventor of the flute, by others of the double flute. ( Plut. de Mus. p. 1132a.; Suid. s.v. Athen. 4.184a., xiv. p. 616, 617; Plin. Nat. 7.56.) By a confusion between the mythical and the historical, the flute-player Olympus is made his son, or by some his father. He is spoken of as a follower of Cybele (Diod. l.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.c.) actually calls him Seilenus, and other writers connect him with Dionysus.
The story of Marsyas was often referred to by the lyric and epigrammatic poets (Bode, Gesch. d. Lyr. Dichtk. vol. ii. pp. 296, 297; Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 488, vol. ii. p. 97), and formed a favourite subject for works of art. (Müller, Archäol. d. Kunst, § 362. n. 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. (Serv. in Aen. 4.528.) 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. (Böttiger, Kleine Schriften, vol. i. p. 28.) The statue of Marsyas in the forum of Rome is well known by the allusions of Horace (Sat. 1.6. 120), Juvenal (Sat. 9.1,2), and Martial (2.64. 7). This statue was the place of assembly for the courtezans of Rome, who used to crown it with chaplets of flowers. (Plin. Nat. 21.3; Senec. de Benef. 6.32; Lipsius, Antiq. Lect. 3.) [P.S]
(Μαρσύαρ), general of the Alexandrians in their revolt against Ptolemy Physcon. He was taken prisoner by Hegelochus, the comander of the king's forces, and carried before Ptolemy, who, however, spared his life. (Diod. Exc. Vales. p. 603.) [E.H.B]
(Μαρσύας), literary. Three historical writers of this name are mentioned by Saidas (s. v. Μαρσύας), but there seems no doubt that this arises either from an error of Suidas himself or a corruption of his text, and that there were in fact only two. (See Bernhardy, ad Suid. l.c. ; Droysen, Hellenism. vol. i. p. 679.)
1. Son of Periander, a native of Pella, in Macedonia, was a contemporary of Alexander, with whom, according to Suidas, he was educated. The same author calls him a brother of Antigonus, who was afterwards king of Asia, by which an uterine brother alone can be meant, as the father of Antigonus was named Philip. Both these statements point to his being of noble birth, and appear strangely at variance with the assertion that he was a mere professional grammarian (Γραμματοδιδάσκαλος), a statement which Geier conjectures plausibly enough to refer in fact to the younger Marsyas [No. 2]. Suidas, indeed, seems in many points to have confounded the two. The only other fact transmitted to us concerning the life of Marsyas, is that he was appointed by Demetrius to command one division of his fleet in the great sea-fight of Salamis, B. C. 306. (Diod. 20.50.) But this circumstance is alone sufficient to show that he was a person who himself took an active part in public affairs, not a mere man of letters. It is probable that he followed the fortunes of his step-brother Antigonus.
His principal work was a history of Macedonia, in ten books, commencing from the earliest times, and coming down to the wars of Alexander in Asia, when it terminated abruptly with the return of that monarch into Syria, after the conquest of Egypt and the foundation of Alexandria. (Suid. l.c.) It is repeatedly cited by Athenaeus, Plutarch, Harpocration, and other writers. Whether the Τὰ περὶ Ἀλέχανδρον which are twice quoted by Harpocration (s. v. Ἀριστίων, Μαργίτης) formed merely a part of the same work, or were altogether distinct, is uncertain, but the former hypothesis seems the more probable. Some authors, however, assign these fragments to the younger Marsyas.
Suidas also speaks of a history of the education of Alexander (αὐτοῦ τοῦ Ἀλεχάνδρου ἀγωγήν) as a separate work, and ascribes, moreover, to the elder Marsyas a treatise on the history or antiquities of Athens (Ἀττικά), in twelve books, which Bernhardy and Geier consider as being the same with the ἀρχαιολογία, the work of the younger historian of this name.
2. Of Philippi, commonly called the Younger (ὁ νεώτερος), to distinguish him from the preceding, with whom he has frequently been confounded. The period at which he flourished is uncertain: the earliest writers by whom he is cited are Pliny and Athenaeus. The latter tells us that he was priest of Heracles. (Athen. 11.467c.) The works of his which we find cited, are, 1. Μακεδονικά, whether a geographical or strictly historical treatise is uncertain; it contained at least six books. (Harpocr. s. v. Λητή.) 2. Ἀρχαιολογία, in twelve books, mentioned by Suidas; probably, as suggested by Geier, the same with the Ἀττικὰ attributed by the lexicographer to the elder Marsyas. 3. Μυθικά, in seven books.
The two last works are erroneously attributed by Suidas, according to our existing text, to a. third Marsyas, a native of Taba, but it has been satisfactorily shown that this supposed historian is no other than the mythical founder of the city of Taba (Steph. Byz. s. v. Τάβαι), and that the works ascribed to him belong in fact to Marsyas of Philippi.
All the questions concerning both the elder and the younger Marsyas are fully discussed, and the extant fragments of their works collected, by Geier, Alexandri M. Historiar. Scriptores aetate suppares, Lips. 1844, pp. 318-340. (See also Droysen, Hellenism. vol. i. pp. 679-682; Bernhardy, ad Suid. s. v. Μαρσύας.) [E.H.B]
- , Μαρσύας, a satyr, flayed by Apollo, L., O., Iu.—A statue of Marsyas in the forum, H.
MA´RSYAS[COLONIAVol. 1. p. 481 a. ]
MA´RSYAS (Μαρσύας).
1.A tributary of the Maeander, having its sources in the district called Idrias, that is in the neighbourhood of Stratoniceia, and flowing in a north-western direction past Alabanda, discharged its waters into the Maeander nearly opposite to Tralles. On its banks were the λευκαὶ στῆλαι near which the Carians held their national meetings. (Hdt. 5.118.) The modern name of this river is Tshina, as is clearly proved by Leake (Asia Minor, p. 234, &c.); while earlier geographers generally confound this Marsyas with the Harpasus.
2.A small river of Phrygia, and, like the Carian Marsyas, a tributary of the Maeander. Herodotus (Hdt. 7.26) calls it a καταρράκτης; and according to Xenophon (Xen. Anab. 1.2.8) its sources were in the market-place of Celaenae, below the acropolis, where it fell down with a great noise from the rock (Curt. 3.1.) This perfectly agrees with the term applied to it by Herodotus; but the description is apparently opposed to a statement of Pliny (Plin. Nat. 5.41), according to whom the river took its origin in the valley of Aulocrene, ten miles from Apamea. (Comp. Strab. 12. p. 578; Max. Tyr. 8.8.) Strabo, again, states that a lake above Celaenae was the source of both the Maeander and the Marsyas. Comparing these accounts,s ays Col. Leake (Asia Minor, p. 160), with Livy (Liv. 38.38), who probably copied from Polybius, it may be inferred that the lake or pool on the summit of a mountain which rose above Celaenae was the reputed source of the Marsyas and Maeander; but that in fact the two rivers issued from different parts of the mountain below the lake.B y this explanation the difficulty of reconciling the different statements seems to be removed; for Aulocrene was probably the name of the lake, which imparted its own name to the plain mentioned by Pliny. The Marsyas joined the Maeander a little way below Celaenae. (Comp. MAEANDER and Hamilton's Researches, 1. p. 499.) [L.S]
MARSYAS (Μαρσύμς), a river of Coelesyria, mentioned only by Pliny (Plin. Nat. 5.23) as dividing Apameia from the tetrarchy of the Nazerini. It was probably the river mentioned-without its name--by Abulfeda as a tributary of the Orontes, which, rising below Apameia, falls into the lake synonymous with that city, and so joins the Orontes. The modern name Yarmuk is given by Pococke, who places it in his map on the east of the Orontes. (Abulfeda, Tabula Syriae, ed. Koehler, pp. 151, 152; Pococke, Description of the East, vol. 2. p. 79.) It doubtless gave its name to Marsyas, a district of Syria, mentioned by Strabo, who joins it with Ituraea, and defines its situation by the following notes:--It adjoined the Macra Campus, on its east, and had its commencement at Laodiceia ad Libanum. Chalcis was, as it were, an acropolis of the district. This Chalcis is joined with Heliopolis, as under the power of Ptolemy, son of Mennaeus, who ruled over Marsyas and Ituraea. (Strab. xvi. pp. 753, 755.) The same geographer speaks of Chalcidice ἀπὸ τοῦ Μαρσύου καθήκουσα (p., 153), and extends it to the sources of the Orontes, above which was the Αὐλὼν βασιλικός (p. 155), now the Bekaa. From these various notices it is evident that the Marsyas comprehended the valley of the Orontes from its rise to Apameia, where it was bounded on the north probably by the river of the same name. But it extended westward to the Macra Campus, which bordered on the Mediterranean. (Mannert, Geographic von Syrien, pp. 326, 363.) [ITURAEA; ORONTES.]
[G.W](Μαρσύας). A Silenus of Phrygian legend (really god of the river of the same name near the old Phrygian town Celaenae), son of Hyagnis or of Olympus. He was the typical player on the flute. Among the Phrygians the flute entered into the worship of Cybelé and Dionysus, and Marsyas is said to have instructed Olympus in playing upon that instrument. According to a Greek legend, Athené had invented the flute, and then cast it aside because it distorted the features of the player. Marsyas took it up, and became so skilful as to challenge Apollo, the patron god of the lyre. The Muses having declared him vanquished, the god flayed him; his skin was hung up in the cave from which the river Marsyas issued, and was said to move about joyfully when a flute was played. King Midas, who had decided in his favour, received as punishment from Apollo a pair of ass's ears. The contest was a favourite subject in art. See Midas.
(Μαρσύας). (1) A small but rapid river of Phrygia, emptying into the Maeander at Celaenae.
(2) A river of Caria, falling into the Maeander nearly opposite Tralles.
(3) A tributary of the Orontes in Syria.
(4) The plain of Syria, through which the upper Orontes flows.
- Hdt. 5.118
- The better known Marsyas in Phrygia is called Catarrhactes by Herodotus: Hdt. 7.26; Paus. 2.7.9, Paus. 10.30.9