ellen van keer, the myth of marsyas in ancient greek art: musical … · 2013-03-23 · hellenic,...

Ellen Van Keer, The Myth of Marsyas in Ancient Greek Art: Musical and Mythological Iconography

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1. Bronze reconstruction of Myron�’s group of Athena and Marsyas, once display-ed on the Acropolis, Athens (original ca. 450 B.C.). Frankfurt am Main, StädtischeGalerie Liebighaus.

Music in Art XXIX/1�–2 (2004)

21© 2004 Research Center for Music Iconography CUNY

THE MYTH OF MARSYAS IN ANCIENT GREEK ART:MUSICAL AND MYTHOLOGICAL ICONOGRAPHY

ELLEN VAN KEER

Centre Leo Apostel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

This paper considers the (few) textual and (many) visual sources of the ancient Greek myth of Marsyasfrom a combined musicological and mythological point of view. Its general aim is twofold: (a) to demonstratethe relative autonomy and mutual complementarity of textual and visual sources in the research of musicaland religious history; and (b) to establish the reciprocity of the disciplines involved in studying visualrepresentations of musical myths, notably of musical and mythological iconography. I will substantiate thecomplementarity of the approaches that researchers take to study the representations of the myth of Marsyasand the music of the aulos in ancient Greek culture and art. One researcher who dedicated much of his timeand effort to examining the curse of the aulos and the blessing of mythological iconography in music historywas the late and great Emanuel Winternitz, to whom this paper is dedicated.1

THE MYTH OF MARSYAS. According to ancient mythological tradition, the goddess Athena invented theaulos, the �‘double flutes�’.2 Finding that blowing the instrument impaired her facial beauty, however, shethrew it away. Marsyas, a satyr from Phrygia,3 found the flute and was quick to learn and play it, displayingan unusual talent. His great accomplishment enticed him to take up the challenge of a musical contest withApollo, master of the lyre and ancient Greece�’s pre-eminent musician-god.4 The winner was to decide on thefate of the loser. This was literally to cost Marsyas his skin. Following the Muses�’ inevitable judgment againstMarsyas, Apollo elected to have the presumptuous satyr flayed alive. His skin was transformed into an askos(flask, pouch) and hung up as a trophy in a cavern near Celaenae in Phrygia, where from his blood or thetears of the attendants of the contest sprang the river Marsyas, a tributary of the river Meander, which stillflows through what we now know as Turkey.5

Like the majority of myths, the myth of Marsyas has come down to us in multiple variants and fromheterogeneous sources. Literary texts, sculptures, and vases, show numerous and varying aspects andapproaches of the myth in Greek antiquity. It also occurs time and again, and in many different ways, inHellenic, Roman, Renaissance, Baroque and modern art forms, including literature, visual arts, music, anddance.6 Greek representations of the myth of Marsyas are mostly to be found in the visual arts, particularlyin Attic and South Italian vase painting from the classical era (fifth to third centuries B.C.). However, themost influential representations are those provided in ancient literature, i.e. throughout the Greco-Romanperiod. Our knowledge of the myth derives largely from the lengthy but late descriptions given by writerssuch as Ovid (Fast. 6,969; Metam. 6,384), Apuleius (Flor. 3), Apollodorus (Bibl. 1,4,2) or Hyginus (Fab. 165).Texts have traditionally constituted our main source of information about classical myths. Mythology as afield of study is primarily text-oriented, just like classical studies and historical sciences in general.7

MYTHOLOGY. Mythological research is dominated by two major currents: historical approach and sym-bolic interpretation. The former, also called the �‘historico-genetic�’ approach, focuses on the origin and evolu-tion of myths and their relationship with historical facts and circumstances. The myth of Marsyas made itsappearance in the city of Athens about the middle of the fifth century B.C. Its breakthrough can be ascribed


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to the correlation between the controversial status of the flute in the myth and the real-life dispute arisingabout the instrument in the city at the time. The causes of the differing viewpoints included the Greek�’s hos-tility towards the �‘barbarian�’ East, kindled by the Persian wars; rivalry between Athens and Thebes, whichsided with Sparta and posed a threat to Athens�’ hegemony; the clash within Athens society between theestablished aristocracy and the nouveaux riches (under the influence of democracy and sophistry); and themusical and religious symbolism of the opposition between stringed and wind instruments (under the in-fluence of Pythagorism). Greek scholars and philosophers related the classical harmony of the heptachordlyre to the cosmic order, opposing the celestial spirituality of stringed music to the worldly effectivity of windmusic. This opposition gained momentum when in Athens the sophisticated concert kithara became theinstrument of preference in aristocratic circles, whilst the emerging bourgeoisie had a penchant for the morepopular flute music. And not only was the flute the national instrument of the Thebans (Beotia) but it alsooriginated from the Near East. In Greek religion and mythology, stringed instruments had of old beenassociated with Apollo, the most �‘Greek�’ of the gods, and wind instruments with Dionysos, a �‘strange�’ anda �‘foreign�’ god. The original Eastern flute, however, was the elymos, one of whose two pipes ended in a horn.The aulos was its Hellenised variant.8 The Theban poet Pindarus (ca. 480 B.C.) ascribed the invention of theaulos to the Greek goddess Athena (Pind. Pyth. 12,6-30). The Athenian texts, by contrast, have her discard theinstrument in disgust (cf. Athen. Deip. 14,161e), and the flute picked up by Marsyas (cf. Plut. De cohib. Ira456b). Marsyas was therefore allegedly introduced into Greek mythology to account for Athena�’s rejectionof the flute and as an expression of the Athenians�’ aversion of this instrument, which in the fifth and fourthcenturies B.C. was stronger than ever. An eminent statesman Alcibiades (ca. 450�–404 B.C.) expresses theAthenian�’s disdainful view of the flute splendidly. According to Plutarch: �‘he refused to play the flute,holding it to be an ignoble and illiberal thing �… �“Flutes, then�”, he said, �“are for the sons of Thebes; theyknow not how to converse. We Athenians, as our fathers say, have Athena for foundress and Apollo for pa-tron, one of whom cast the flute away in disgust, and the other flayed the presumptuous flute player�” (Alc.2,4�–6).9 The Athenians�’ aversion of the flute and preference of the lyre was to find its supreme confirmationin the myth of Marsyas and Apollo, which soon enjoyed unprecedented popularity.10

For Herodotus (ca. 480�–425 B.C.) and Xenophon (ca. 430�–355 B.C.) this myth was not yet more than alocal legend from Asia Minor. Herodotus (Hist. 7,26,3) refers to the �‘Phrygian story�’ (Phrugoon logos) aboutApollo pulling the satyr Marsyas�’ skin over his ears at Celaenae. Xenophon (Anab. 1,2,8) refers to the local�‘narrative�’ (legetai) of Apollo skinning Marsyas at Celaenae, near the source of the river that was subsequent-ly named after the unfortunate satyr. The old age and the geographic specificity of these extracts suggest adegree of historicity. The Marsyas-Apollo myth may originally have been a local legend from Celaenae,Phrygia, telling the story of a local cult figure. We do not know to what extent the Greek variant of the mythof Marsyas went back to a cult celebrated outside Greece in earlier times, nor are we aware of the originalmeaning of such an indigenous cult. The reason for this is that there are no indigenous contemporary sourcesof information on the Phrygian Marsyas cult, but only Greek and, particularly, Roman sources from laterdates. Such sources naturally present Greek and Roman interpretations rather than faithful descriptions ofthe original Phrygian figure of Marsyas.11 Even distinctly Eastern elements in the myth of Marsyas cannotbe said to be pre-Hellenic by definition. King Midas�’ judgment in favour of Marsyas and the latter�’s privileg-ed relationship with the goddess Cybele are absent in the earliest Greek sources and therefore seem to be lateHellenistic associations (for reasons that include their common geographical origin). By analogy, Marsyas�’consanguinity with the Phrygian flutists Hyagnis or Olympos and even his great musical skill itself may beGreek adaptations, inspired, for instance, by Phrygia�’s legendary fame as the cradle of the flute and flutemusic. There is nothing to confirm that these elements were taken directly and entirely from ancient Phrygiancult rituals.12

The second major current is that of interpreting the myth in symbolic terms. Marsyas�’ foreign ancestry(Phrygia), capacity (satyr), and other characteristics can also be seen as the intrinsically Greek expressionsof his being �‘different�’ and even �‘opposite�’: �‘non-Greek�’, �‘non-divine�’, �‘non-civilised�’, �‘presumptuous�’, �‘ugly�’.According to this so-called �‘symbolic-structural�’ approach, the myth of Marsyas is not traced back to sometangible historical reality but rather taken to be a symbolic locus communis of a series of fundamentaloppositions serving the Greeks to structure and give meaning to their material and immaterial existence: the


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West versus the East, gods versus humans, punishment (nemesis) versus presumption (hybris), the Apollonianversus the Dionysian, celestial lyre music versus passionate flute music.13 All myths are polysemic and thestory of Marsyas is no exception. Its musical references allegedly constitute the ultimate expression of theidea that flute playing is improper and string playing is laudable. On the one hand, this idea is reduced toa historical reality based on a number of political, social, cultural and musical circumstances. On the other,it is interpreted in symbolic terms according to a series of truths in the spheres of ethics, philosophy andreligion. These two extreme positions, that of the so-called �‘reflectors�’ and that of the �‘constructors�’, are, ofcourse, not mutually exclusive but complementary.14

2. Athena plays flute. Attic black-figured panathenaic amphora of ca. 520�–510B.C. Private collection, Basel.


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3. Athena plays flute. Apulian red-figured neck-amphora of ca. 370�–360 B.C. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, inv. no.00.348. Drawing from Annali dell�’Istituto di corrispondenza archeologica XLI (1879), tav. D (G. Jatta).

MYTHOLOGICAL ICONOGRAPHY. Images and texts are complementary too. In spite of this, researchershave traditionally taken pictorial representations of mythological events to be mere illustrations accompany-ing the textual versions of myths, and even today the bias is towards relating developments in mythologyprimarily to literary history. The Athena-Marsyas myth may serve to illustrate this phenomenon. Towardsthe middle of the fifth century B.C., the myth enjoyed a sudden increase in popularity. The specific reasonfor this is said to have been the success of the dithyramb Marsyas, composed by Melanippides of Melos (ca.480 B.C.). According to Athenaeus �‘Melanippides had ridiculed aulos-playing splendidly in his Marsyas, whenhe said of Athena: �“Athena threw the instruments from her holy hand and said: �‘Away, shameful things,defilers of my body! I do not give myself to ugliness�’�” (Deip. 14,616e�–f).15 This is in line with a sculpture weknow from Plinius and Pausanias, in terms of both content and chronology. Pausanias (1,24,1), in describingthe Acropolis of Athens, refers to a statue representing Athena in the act of striking Marsyas the silen fortaking up the flute that the goddess wished to be cast away for good. Plinius (N.H. 34,57), in his summarydescription of the major works of the famous Greek sculptor Myron of Eleutherai (ca. 480�–445 B.C.), refersto a satyr marvelling at the flute and an Athena. The connection between both extracts has led researchersto conclude that at some moment halfway the fifth century B.C. Myron created an Athena and Marsyas groupthat remained on the Acropolis of Athens for a long stretch of time. The group reoccurs in Roman copies [fig.1]16 and possibly also in several fifth-century Attic red figure vase representations.17 They all show Athenacasting away the flute and Marsyas shrinking from her. In the traditional hierarchy of historical sources, textscome before sculptures, which in turn come before vases. Thus, Myron�’s group is usually taken to honourMelanippides�’ play, with the vase representations being regarded as inspired by the statue group.18 More


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than one approach can of course be followed to explain the occurrence of common themes in works ofliterary and plastic art. Of the two positions at both ends of the scale, the first upholds that there is a directlink, for instance, in a sculpture commemorating a stage performance or a vase painting representing a scenefrom a play.19 According to the opposite view, there is no direct link and any common themes between tex-tual and pictorial representations must necessarily be ascribed to a unique historical coincidence or a moreuniversal symbolism, for instance in the case of musical representations with ecstatic accents.20 In theory,either of these options can always be postulated but rarely refuted. Another viewpoint, which we share,maintains that texts and images autonomously derive from a common tradition and are indirectly linked toeach other.21 They express, each in their own language, the many different aspects of the same socio-historicalrealities, including myths. Text and image require a proper methodology and represent autonomous,equivalent and mutually complementary historical and mythological sources.22

The surviving texts contain the first instance of Athena being associated with the flute through the de-grading context of the Marsyas myth, i.e. when in Melanippides�’ dithyramb she horrified casts away theinstrument. However, an earlier Attic black-figure vase shows the goddess playing the flute [fig. 2].23 Thissuggests that Athena�’s notorious aversion of the flute should be qualified. She discards an instrument forwhich she felt a strong liking. Outside Athens, Athena maintained good relations with the flute. The Thebantexts in particular praise her as the inventor of flute music on the occasion of Perseus�’ victory over the Me-dusa (Pind. Pyth. 12, 6�–30). They tell us how she provided the instrument to the humans by making it a giftat the wedding of Kadmos �– Thebes�’ founder �– and Harmonia (Alcman ap. Ps.-Plut. De mus. 14, 1336a). Theyeven have her teach the art of flute playing to Apollo (Corinna ap. Ps-Plut. De mus. 14, 1336b). However, thetexts can differ substantially from the images. Athena is never shown playing the flute in any Beotian image-ry, although she is on an Attic vase [fig. 2], and beyond that also in Apulian ceramics [fig. 3].24 Hence, Athe-na�’s exceptional love of the flute in Thebes also calls for qualifying.25

MUSIC HISTORY. Approached from a music historical perspective, the widely known incongruence inAthena�’s attitudes towards the flute in Athens and Thebes, respectively, in fact seems to point to stronglycontested musical developments that took place throughout the Greek world from the classical period on-wards, impelled by the great Theban schools of music and led by flute music. Unlike mythologists�’ usualassumptions, the subject of Pindarus�’ 12th Pythian ode, praising the flute, is not the aulos in general but morein particular the fact that the great degree of technical perfection and extensive harmony range of thisinstrument achieved in his city in his days were such that flute playing (auletics) was now capable of invok-ing all kinds of sounds and affections and apt for widely differing situations. The Theban poet ascribes theseinnovations to the goddess Athena, whom he does not praise as the inventor of the flute, the aulos, per se,but rather as the patroness of the art of flute playing and flute music, i.e. auletics. It was under her protectionthat the Thebans placed their technical-organological innovations of the flute, their new scales and rhythmsfor flute music, and their flute virtuosi. This new style of flute music triggered a major controversy, whichseriously compromised the status of the flute throughout Greek society and left its mark on mythology.26

The agonistic and ambivalent myth of Marsyas epitomises this controversy in all respects. For example,in Athenian literature Marsyas is reprehended for his ugliness but also extolled for his invention of the phor-beia (cf. Plut. De cohib. ira 456b). The mouthpiece was one of the major improvements of the aulos, both techni-cally and aesthetically. It ensured less distortion of the flute player�’s jaws, greater blowing ease and hencemade the instrument more suitable for public performances (the flutist could play louder and longer).27 Itwas the very Melanippides, the composer of the earliest verses on Marsyas in the form of a dithyramb aimedto ridicule the flute, who introduced instrumental flute solos into this musical genre. Melanippides was oneof the founders of the new (flute) music and a much disputed musician. �“For before until the time of Mela-nippides the dithyrambic poet it was the custom of the flute players to be paid by the poets, because evident-ly the poetry was the more important part, and the flute players served the producers. Later this custom toowas corrupted�”, complained his contemporary fellow-townsman Pherecrates (ca. 430 B.C.) in a tone ofreproach about him in his Cheiron (ap. Ps.-Plut. De mus. 1141c�–d).28 As we can see, we should seriously qua-lify even Melanippides�’ hostility and the Athenian�’s overall aversion of flute music. They go hand in handwith an enormous expansion of the use and role of the flute in the Athenian and Greek societies.29


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4. The contest between Marsyas and Apollo. Attic red-figured volute-krater of ca. 410 B.C. attributed to the KadmosPainter. Ruvo, Museo Archeologico Nazionale Jatta, inv. no. 1093. From Monumenti inediti pubblicati dall�’Instituto di corris-pondenza archeologica sotto la direzione dei signori Od. Gerhard e Teod Panofka (Roma; Paris, 1829�–91), vol. 8, tab. 42.

The Thebans had raised the number of flute holes and introduced metal rings for complete or partialclosure. In this way, a single instrument allowed for various harmonies. Until then, tuning had been fixed,with a different type of flute for each of the three great modes (Dorian, Lydian and Phrygian). To play a dif-ferent scale, the flutist had to change instruments, but now, in the new system, he needed only one instru-ment. Additionally, it enabled the player to make diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic music. There was afusion of scales and musical genres. In the traditional forms of music, the harmonies and modes were fixed:Dorian harmony and diatonic mode for hymns, Phrygian harmony and enharmonic keys for dithyrambs,and so on. The composers had to strictly abide by the nomoi30 of tradition. Traditional compositions were lar-gely homophonous, without harmony or counterpoint, developing along a single melodic line that was tight-ly followed by the accompanying instruments. Traditional music, championed by string music, was linear,simple and sober. The new style of music, spurred on by flute music, was quite different. Complex composi-tions were now written for polyphonic instruments, requiring great technical skill. Moreover, the widenedrange of musical possibilities of the flute and the markedly increased technical difficulty of flute playingplaced the virtuoso in the limelight. The instrumentalist now relegated the vocal element to the background,whereas traditionally the vocal line and lyrics had outweighed the instrumental accompaniment. This couldnot but arouse strong resistance, which was to find a symbolic expression in the winged words of the other-


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wise obscure comedy poet Pratinas of Phlius (fifth century B.C.). Displeased by the way in which vocals andchorus had been made subservient to the instruments, particularly to the flute, he called for a rehabilitationof the traditional Dorian choral lyrics, in which both content and form of the songs are superior to the instru-mental accompaniment of the kithara: �“It is song that the Muse made queen. Let the aulos dance after it, sinceit is a servant�” (ap. Athen. Deip. 14,617d).31

Also this issue reappears in the Marsyas myth.32 Diodorus Siculus, an Hellenistic author, tells us thatApollo was defeated by Marsyas in the first round of the contest, but in the second round managed to over-come his opponent by singing to the music of his lyre, something that is impossible with the flute (Cyb. 3,58�–59). In addition to �– or maybe rather than �– the eternal antagonism between wind and string instruments,the contest between Marsyas and Apollo also represents the strife between the competing currents in Greekmusic. Actually we come across this idea in as early a writer as Xenophon, the first Greek author to mentionthe contest, describing it as a duel peri sophias, i.e. a competition in skills and arts (Anab. I.2.8).33 For the anci-ent Greeks Marsyas was a gifted musician and the importance of the art of flute playing was waxing. How-ever, in traditional music, which was intended to please Apollo, the aulos and auletics were supposed to besubservient to the chorus (song). In its own words, the myth of Marsyas warns against the temptations anddangers of the innovating polyphony of flute playing, as opposed to traditional string music, contrasting thetwo principal styles in the music history of ancient Greece.34

MUSICAL ICONOGRAPHY. Myths are of course not the main focus of historians of Greek music. From theoutset, their emphasis has been on the tools (partitions, instruments) and reconstruction of ancient Greekmusic. The actual sound of music has not survived. But we do have texts and material remains which informus about fundamental aspects such as its rhythm and instrumentation.35 Especially in connection with themusic of prehistorical Greece, visual representations are a long time established source category in musichistory. They also represent an important source of information about the music history of the later periods.Music historians have all kinds of representations of music in art at their disposal. As myths are very com-mon subject in Greek art, they generally also study mythological representations of music.36 A first and ob-vious approach is organological, according to which musical representations are objective visualisationsallowing the first-hand study of formal and technical aspects of musical instruments.37 A representation ofa disappointed Marsyas listening to Apollo is particularly interesting because on the flute in Marsyas�’ handsare depicted the holes. The few existing ancient Greek pictorial representations of flute holes do not allowfor many conclusions about the developments in their position, size or number, but this particular visuali-sation does show that the holes were arranged in staggered rows, presumably for practical reasons, and thateither pipe typically had four holes, to allow for pentatonic music.38 In another representation of the contest,in which Marsyas is playing the flute while Apollo is already tuning his instrument, we can see that the god,in doing so, rests his right hand on the yoke while holding his left hand between the strings to avoid vibra-tions.39 A further vase painting that shows among the audience two Muses holding a similar stringed instru-ment confirms that two different fixation systems were used side by side [fig. 4].40

The more recent perceptual approach considers the visual representations of music to be indicative ofsound and rhythm and of their subjective effects. Thus, dynamic scenes represent up-tempo and relativelytempestuous music, as opposed to calm tableaux.41 It appears from the representations that the lyre is usuallyassociated with serenity, whereas the flute is more often shown to arouse feelings of elation.42 In particularlybuoyant scenes, the aulos is always present, while the kithara is a typical instrument in subdued situations.The aulos and the kithara therefore do not merely represent two subsequent styles in Greek music history butalso two simultaneously existing musical genres evoking opposite moods among the audience. The concreteopposition of the two instruments that we can see from the scenes depicted on an uncommon Attic vase maywell have been chosen on purpose [fig. 4]. The neck of the vase shows Marsyas playing the aulos to Apolloand a dancing satyr in high spirits. In the scene on the body, Marsyas, by way of exception, plays the kitharato Athena and Apollo, who quietly listen to the music. In other words, even though we can no longer actuallyhear Greek music, we can still sense it from the movements of the subjects of musical representations inancient Greek art. It confirms the (mimetic) theory, which maintains that the listener imitates and partakesof the music through physical movements. This insight opens an important new perspective of musicaliconography and Greek music history.43


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5. Marsyas and Olympos. Attic red-figured panathenaic amphora of the end of the 5th century B.C. attributed to the Mei-dias Painter. Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, inv. no. 81401. Drawing originally from Monumenti inediti pubblicatidall�’Instituto di corrispondenza archeologica sotto la direzione dei signori Od. Gerhard e Teod Panofka (Roma; Paris, 1829�–91), vol.2, tab. 37. Copy from Pitture di vasi fittili (1831�–1837), Tom. CCCXXXII (F. Inghirami).

Musical representations have traditionally been a main source of information about the role of music inGreek society. According to the most traditional �‘historical�’ approach, musical representations are objectivevisualisations of musical practices and customs illustrating the function of music in the fields of education(musical lessons), combat (battle scenes), entertainment (symposia), and religious practices (processions).From this point of view, scenes of Athena playing the flute are interesting because they refer to the presenceof flute music in this goddess�’ cult throughout the Greek world (fig. 1 is from Apulia; fig. 2 is from Athens).44

Moreover, the depiction of flute-playing Athena on a panathenaic vase [fig. 2] bears a direct relation to themusical contests performed in her cult. Panathenaic vases (and their contents) were the awards for thewinners of contests during games held in Athens in honour of Athena. It makes perfect sense that the flute-playing goddess on this vase is depicted facing Heracles, the athletic hero and epitome of the Greek compe-titor, who is playing the lyre. At panathenaic festivities there were both gymnastic competitions and musicalcontests for flute and for lyre. That is why on panathenaic vases serving as awards Athena can sometimesbe seen playing the kithara and Heracles occasionally even playing the flute.45

The last but not the least important is the �‘cognitive�’ approach, in which musical representations areregarded as visualisations of ancient Greek musical thought and beliefs as they are expressed in associationsof musical instruments with religious behaviour, mythological figures or symbolic significance.46 This iswhere the major discrepancies between text and image become clear. In connection with the special ethicalqualities that fifth-century scholars ascribed to the heptachord, for example, some are keen to suggest a linearincrease of the number of lyre strings to the classical number of seven. However, eleven-string lyres were


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depicted as early as the fifth century, while we have fourth-century pictorial representations of five-stringlyres.47 Literary sources also induce us to strictly oppose Apollonian to Dionysian music and to associatestrings and string music with Apollo and wind instruments with Dionysos. Nevertheless, Greek visual artsdo show strings in Dionysian contexts as well. The barbitos even proves to be a predominantly Dionysian in-strument used to accompany symposiums, songs at banquets, or komos dances.48 On vases, the kithara, in lite-rature presented as the Apollonian instrument par excellence, can also be seen in Dionysian contexts. EvenDionysos could play it, just like the Muses could play the aulos to Apollo.49 It is clearly not only the kind ofinstrument that determines the Apollonian or Dionysian nature of musical representations. Many stringedinstruments and wind instruments occur in both contexts.50

In music, the Dionysian-Apollonian distinction is not a fixed feature of instruments as a mere materialfact. However, it does manifest itself in the context of music as a complex performative phenomenon. Diony-sian music often turns out to be purely instrumental and it is invariably highly rhythmic, prompting theaudience to move and dance. Apollonian music, by contrast, rather invites to listen. It often involves singing(and lyrics).51 Yet Dionysos too liked instrumentally accompanied singing, while Apollo�’s music could bedanced to.52 Not at any moment did the mousikè technè �– the arts under the protection of the Muses �– implyexclusively instrumental play for the Greeks, but rather the combination of poetry (lyrics), music (sound) anddance (movement). These three elements were inextricably intertwined.53 In other words, Apollo�’s music(lyrics and sound) and Dionysos�’ music (sound and movement) were not only each other�’s contrasts but also,and particularly, each other�’s necessary complement. The flute and the lyre are at both ends of the gamut ofGreek music, and together they evoke numerous aspects of what �‘music�’ meant to the ancient Greeks. Thesynthesis of flute and lyre sums up Greek music as a whole. Such an interpretation leads us to Winternitz�’concept of musical iconology, according to which musical instruments and scenes are invested with symbolicmeanings, beyond their physical qualities and immediate musical significance. This is obviously the case inmythological representations.54

MUSICAL ICONOLOGY. It goes without saying that any adequate study of mythological representationsof music must necessarily account for mythology. Musical iconology requires that musicology and mytho-logy meet and this is at the benefit of both disciplines as well as of our understanding of the mythologicalimages of music in ancient Greek art. To give an example: if we were to take a one-sided music historicalapproach, it would be impossible to recognize that the representation of Athena from Apulia, which at firstglance suggests her love of the instrument, in fact points to all the controversy about the aulos in Greek musicand society of those days [fig. 3]. One youth stands in front of Athena, holding up a mirror for her to see herfacial distortions, which will cause her to cast away the flute in Athens before Marsyas�’ feet. A satyr, far right,responds to Marsyas�’ Attic iconography in the context of the Athena-Marsyas myth [fig. 1]. On the otherhand, Athena lacks her typical military paraphernalia (helmet, lance). She looks quite affable and her onlydistinction is her shield, the aegis, bearing the head of the Gorgon Medusa with a hundred snakes for her hair.It refers to the Theban myth telling us of Athena�’s invention of auletics on the occasion of Perseus�’ victoryover the Medusa through the composition of the nomos polycephalos, the song of the many heads, a pieceplayed in Athena�’s cult (Pind. Pyth. 12). In a language and modality of its own, this Apulian mythologicalrepresentation depicts a complex controversy in Greek (music) history.55

Inversely, a one-sided approach of mythology would fail to grasp the full meaning of the unusual Atticrepresentation of Marsyas playing the flute and Olympos playing the lyre [fig. 5].56 Despite the name inscrip-tions these identifications are disputed for a variety of reasons. One such reason is that the mythological jointstaging of Marsyas and Olympos, as two eminent Eastern musicians, in Athens occurs only very rarely onits own. Another is that Marsyas (inscr. Marsuas) and Olympos (inscr. Olumpos) are surrounded by Dionysianfigures only, while Athenian scenes of Marsyas usually show him in less respectable, Apollonian contexts.Moreover, the instrument Olympos is holding is a lyre and not, as we would expect, a flute. For all thesereasons, many mythologists think that in fact Apollo is represented here, with the name inscription referringto Mount Olympos as the site of the god�’s musical contest with Marsyas. However, this runs counter to allwell-known mythographical traditions. What we do know from literary sources is Olympos playing the lyreand associated with Apollo (cf. Ps.-Plut. De mus 1137b). In this representation, the two are contaminated,much in the same way the maenads here bear the names of Muses: Thalia, Calliope and Urania.57 And that


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is not all, for the entire representation is highly ambivalent. The young man with the lyre, for instance, iswearing a laurel wreathe on his head, a typically Apollonian attribute. But he is accompanied by a swan,usually associated with Olympos. The swan may serve to emphasise the god�’s rural origin, in Phrygia, whichis necessary because the figure of a naked youth with a lyre gives Olympos a definitely Greek appearance.It might also serve to add erotic connotations to Olympos�’ behaviour, and possibly the lyre can be taken tobe a love gift to Marsyas, for the relationship between Olympos and Marsyas would acquire erotic overtones.However, this happened only in a few isolated cases, at a late stage, and initially only in Southern Italy. Onthe other hand, their relationship is never antagonistic or comparable to that between Marsyas and Apollo.In spite of this, the scene on the vase is usually assumed to represent an opposition of the two central figures.Firstly, because of the fundamental antithesis between strings and winds and their more universal sym-bolism. And secondly, more in particular, because of the panathenaic character of this vase. It was awardedto the winner of a contest held at the panathenaic festivities. The winning piece, in form or in content, stagedthe rivalry between competing musical genres and styles in Athens: Calliope is the Muse of epic lyricism,her attribute is the lyre; Thalia is the Muse of the comedy and dithyramb, her attribute is the flute. Together,they represent the old versus the innovating musical genres, just like Marsyas and Olympos. Marsyas�’ careerwas in its heyday in Athens in the fifth century B.C., moving on the wings of the new (flute) music. Olymposwas a mythological and semi-historical flutist associated with an early stage and early style in Greek music.58

6. Marsyas, Apollo and Muses. Attic red-figured bell-krater of ca. 410 B.C. attributed to the Pothos Painter.Paris, Musée du Louvre, G490.


31

He was supposed to be the author of musical pieces and harmonies for flute that with time would also beplayed using other instruments. Olympos was the legendary inventor of enharmonics and his name becamesynonymous with tragic music. In mythology, he was the son or beloved disciple of Marsyas, who was a tra-gic musician-hero par excellence. Olympos preferring the flute to the lyre is therefore a particularly far-reach-ing and comprehensive personification of Marsyas�’ tragedy. Yet this scene cannot be regarded as adownright disqualification of flute music or a partial tribute to lyre music. The lyre is with Olympos, not withApollo, even though the former was a follower of Marsyas and an Eastern musician of renown. It remindsus of the fact that also the lyre originated from the East and was transformed by the major musical innova-tions that took place during the classical period. As musical hero with the lyre, Olympos is the highly tragicharbinger of the ill-fated destiny of Marsyas and flute music, indicating a similar ending awaited stringmusic and the heroes of the lyre. Many of these died a ghastly death: Orpheus was torn limb from limb bythe maenads, or Linos was killed by his disciple Heracles. In mythology, Apollo, the god of the lyre, is allow-ed to overcome Marsyas, the hero of the flute. In real life, developments in the art of flute playing overtakethe evolution of string music. Although the two instruments represent different genres and styles of music,they coincide in origin (the East) and fate (new music).59

This interpretation is in line with the actual situation in Athens in classical times, as far as the history ofmusic is concerned. There were two dominant currents: Olympos�’ (by then) traditional music and Marsyas�’

7. Marsyas, Apollo, and Skyth. Marble bas relief sculpture from Mantinea of ca. 335 B.C. attributed to the circle ofPraxiteles. Athens, Ethniko Arhaiologiko Mouseio, inv. no. 215.


32

(at the time still) progressive music. It also links up with the more universal antithesis between stringed andwind instruments, between Apollonian music and Dionysian music. Moreover, these sharp musical contrastsimply numberless subtle mythological ambivalences and complex religious realities, which were visualisedin greater detail in Greek pictorial art. Stringed instruments are usually in the hands of Apollo or related characters,such as the Muses or Athena [fig. 6].60 The scenes represented on the amphora in figure 5 are an exceptionto this rule. On the body, it is Marsyas who is playing the kithara, while on the neck Apollo appears in an unusuallylighthearted scene, with satyr dancing to Marsyas�’ flute playing. Apollo is normally found in serene tableaux,with the characters depicted listening intently to musical performances on stringed instruments. Dynamicscenes, by contrast, are peopled with flute playing and dancing satyrs and mainly Dionysian characters. Mostof the time, it is only Marsyas who appears playing the flute in quiet scenes, in the presence of Apollonianfigures, as in figure 7. It will be clear that the terms �‘Apollonian�’ and �‘Dionysian�’ are quite ambiguous andcover multifarious and multivalent musical and religious realities and symbolisms that are not at any pointwholly mutually exclusive. Neither musical instruments nor mythological and religious characters pertainexclusively to either sphere but instead appear in differing contexts. The aulos is associated with the most widelyvarying religious and mythological characters, including Marsyas, Athena, the maenads and the Muses. Theseassociations originate from and give expression to the various aspects of this highly multivalent instrument.61

Marsyas is also associated with different musical instruments: aulos, syrinx, lyra, kithara. All these instrumentswere considered suitable for �‘his�’ music.62 This music not only moved its maker into a position that was diametricallyopposed to Apollo�’s, but it also made Marsyas the leader of Dionysos�’ retinue, the thiasos, even in Athens.63

The visual representations make explicit the implicitly omnipresent tension and ambivalence of Greekmyths. Indeed, ambivalence is one of the main characteristics of ancient Greek mythological and religiousthinking.64 The curse of the aulos is highly ambivalent too. Auletics is not merely doomed, improper, inferioror the complete opposite of the superior art of the kithara, in the way that Marsyas is not just the completecounterpart of Apollo. Nor is the latter merely the god of reason, harmony, music, medicine and justice. Hegives and takes, cures and kills, is both merciful and vengeful, makes music and war, plays the kithara andlistens to the aulos.65 Apollo with the kithara and Marsyas with the aulos are not mutually exclusive �– quitethe contrary, they are interdependent. It is the very acuteness of their antithesis that make them a balanced,harmonious and complete whole. Their synthesis moreover encompasses the various aspects of ancient Greekmusic and music history (origin, evolution, styles), both historically (words, movement, sound) andsymbolically (aesthetics, ethics, religion, mythology). The famous Praxitelian representation of the Marsyas-Apollo contest thus visualises, in a language and modality of its own, the gamut of Greek music, from itsmaterial to its symbolic aspects, from its musicological to its mythological dimensions. Consequently, onlyan integrated approach to its study will offer perspectives for revealing their intertwinement and the multi-layerdness of this representation [fig. 7].66

CONCLUSION. Literary works have traditionally constituted the principal sources of information aboutGreek mythology. However, myths have come down to us not only in the form of texts but also, and aboveall, in visual arts. Iconography offers promising new perspectives for the study of the Greek Marsyas myth.The Athena-Marsyas myth is usually studied for its strong political content (historical). The Marsyas-Apollomyth is known above all as one of the main Greek agon and hybris myths (symbolic). Only rarely do mytho-logists focus on the musical aspects of the Marsyas myth. They are studied quite exclusively in terms of mu-sic history. The integration of these perspectives would open the door to a more comprehensive understand-ing of the mythological representation of music. Integrated study of the visual representations of the mythof Marsyas helps us to leave behind the conventional interpretation of this myth and gain a better insight intothe rich variety that is so characteristic of Greek mythology. Indeed, this study of the representations of themyth of Marsyas and the music of the aulos in ancient Greek culture and art shows that not only iconographyand philology, but also musicology and mythology, and even Dionysos en Apollo, are intrinsicallycomplementary. Certain antagonisms have become almost proverbial characteristics of ancient Greek culture:logos and mythos, Apollonian and Dionysian, kithara and aulos. The myth of Marsyas refers to many of them.These opposites however do not appear as strict polarities. Many variations are indeed possible.

Music in Art XXX/1-2 (2004)

NorEs

1 Emanuel Wintemitz , Musical lnstruments andTheir Symbo-lisminWesternArf (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979)'25-42:"TheYisual Arts as a Source for the Historian of Music";15'l.,-L65: "The Curse of Pallas Athena". - The abbreviations in thisessay are in keeping with those used in the Oxford Classical Dic-tionary @CD).

2 The wotd aulos is difficult to hanslate since in our timesthere is no identical instrument. 'Flute' or'flutes', the terms com-monly used to refer to aulos, ate inaccurate because, unlike themodem flute and like the oboe and the bassoon, fJ'r. aulos had areed mouthpiece. On the other hand, there are significant diffe-rences between the aulos and our reed instruments' It was pos-sibly played using circular breathing and it typically consisted oftwo pipes (which is why it was often referred to in its plural formauloi). The monaulos was a single-stemmed variant and the pla-giaulos, also consisting of one pipe, was played the way of ourtransverse fl ute. The Greeks used several other wind instruments,such as the syrinx (panpipes) and the salpinx (trumpet), but theyplayed only a minor role. That is why we continue to translateaulosby 'flute'. After all, flute music was mainly azlos music. Cf.Frieder Zaminer, "Musikinstrumente: V' Griechenan d", Der N eueP auly : Enzyklop tidie der Antike (Stuttgarg Weimar: Metzler, 2000),vol. VIII,543-551.

3 In Greek mythology, satyrs or silens - their distinction isunclear - are half man half beast (horse or goat), sprites ol vege-tation demons roaming the woods and mountains. They wereDionysos' high-spirited attendants, making music, dancing anddrinking to honour their god. The maenads were their femalecounterparts. Cf. Erika Simon, "Silenoi" , kxicon iconographicummytholo giae classicae (Ziirich: Artemis, 1997), v ol.Yn.1, 1108-1'133for sources and recent bibliography.

a The word'lyre' is the generic term for stringed instru-ments, including chelys, phorminx, barbitos, kithara arrd lyra alike-The clrclys was the most rudimentary instrument in ancientGreece. It originally consisted of the shell of a tortoise coveredwith animal skin. This sound-body had two necks mounted to it,which were interlinked by a cross-piece. The strings were attach-ed between the cross-piece and the body. The phonnin.r was theinstrument of the bards, and was much bigger, heavier and so-phisticated than the chelys. The kithara was a more elaboratedform of the plnrminr. It was a grand inshument often used inpublic performances. The lyra was a further elaboration of theclulysand hence not quite as big, heavy, and sophisticated as thekitlura.Thebarbitos was a bass whose strings were larger-sized,longer and lower-pitched. Cf. Reginald P. WinningtonJngram,"Greece. Ancient", The New Groae Dictionary of Music and Mnsi-cians.Ed. by Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 2001)2, vol. X,348-372.

s The'standard' version of the myth is found in most dic-tionaries and encyclopedia. Cf. Wthl-ex Il.2 (1894), s'v. "Mat-

syas" ,2439-2460 (O. Jessen); RE XIV.2 (1930), s.v. "Mafsyas 6" ,tggO-tggS (A. Burckha fit) ; E AA IV (1 961 ), s.v. " Marsia", 87 6-880(8. Paribeni); KlP, s.v. "Matsyas 3" (1969), 1050-1051 (H. vonGeisau); LAW (1975), s.v. "Matsyas",1858 (K. Schauenburg);OCDI (1970),s.v. "Matsy as" ,652(H. f. Rose & C. M. Robertson);Neue Pauly, s.v. "Matsyasl",VU (1999),955 (E. Visser).

o Cf. Ircne Aghion, Claire Barbillon & Franqois Lissarrague,Hdros et dieux de I' antiquitd : Guide iconographiEte (P afis:Flammari-on,1.990),184; Anne H. Weis, "Marsyas l' ,LIMCIV.1, (1.992);366-376 with illustrations n LIMC lV '2, 1'83-'l'93; Jane D. Reid, Tlte

Oxford Gwide to Classical Mythology in tle Arts 1300-1990s (Ox-ford: Oxford University Press, 1993), vol. II, 638-643.

7 Cf. iust recently Robin Hard, Tlu Routledge Handbook ofGreek Mythotogy (London: Routledge, 2004), L-20: "Source forGreek Myths" only provides an alphabetical list of the most im-portant classical authors (and works) in the study of ancientGreek myth.

8 Cf. particularly Annie B€Iis, "L'aulos phrygied', RA 93(1986),21.40.

e toig pbv dtrl,otg uuqroue 6t6coro-l'ot5 dnwrx65, td 6'qu.l,eiv dqeuyev cbg cyewdg r<ci dvetrsueepov' ". qutreiroo-ov o$v," 6gtl, "@rlPqicov nqi6es' ou ydp [ooot 6rctreyeoOat'qFiv 6i roig 'A0qvoiotg, tirg oi norepesldYoDotv, apXrlyer-tg 'A0r1va xci ucrpQog 'An6tr\cov dcrriv, rbv rlpiv dpp.Vtrdv qul,6v, d 6e xqi-rdv au\d1v i(d6erpev. English han-slation from <http : / / www.perseus.tufts.edu>, after BemadettePerrin, Plutarch's Liaes (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UniversityPress; London: William Heinemann, 1.91,4). According to Plu-tarch, because of this the aulos was excluded from the artes libe-rales and was generally discredited. By consequence, also forsome present authors the attlos'did not belong to the mousike':Alfred Sendrey, Music in the Social and Religious Life of Antiquity(Rutherford: Dickinson University Press,1974),315. After all alsoPlato (ca. 427-348 B.C.) bans the instrument from his ideal stateand prefers, as traditionally, Apollo and his music to that ofMarsyas (Resp.3, 399d-e). Aristoteles (ca.384-3228.C'), on hisbehalf, excludes flute playing from education and finds wisdomin the story told by the elders that Athena invented the flute anddiscarded it (Pol. 8, 6,134'l'a-b).

10 For the historical approach to the myth of Marsyas cf.Robert Fleisher, "Marsyas und Achaios", OIH beibl.SO (1972-1975),103-'1,2; Wolfgang Schindler, Mytlns undWirklichkeit in derAntike (Leipzig: Mann, 1987),115-1'46: "Athena und Marsyas".More general Carlo Brillante, "History and the Historical Inter-pretation of Myth", Approaclrcs to Greek Wth.Ed. Lowell Ed-munds (Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), 93-138.

tt Water and music apPear to be Marsyas principal charac-teristics in Celaenae in Roman days (Apamea Kibotos) as heappears on its coins with the fullhorm (corrutcopia) and the flute(aulos): A. Weis, Marsyas,368, nos.2 and 7 (illustrated). Watercould be Marsyas' oldest asPect. Several rivers flowing throughPhrygra, Lydia or Caria carried this etymologically obscurename. The natural allegorist Max Miiller, "Marsyas" , OL21913,433436abeady connected the name with watet andstreams andexplained the myth of Marsyas on the basis of recurring naturalphenomena. The music historian Martin Vogel, "Der Schlauchder Marsyas", RhMrts'1.07 (194),49-56, on the other hand,linksthe name and myth to an indigenous ass cult and to the originand evolution of the bagpipes. Everyone does agree on the factthat the name and the satyr Marsyas are non-native Greek andhave eastem origins. For the origins, content, significance andmany interpretations of the myth of Marsyas cf. Maria Rilke Ma-niates, "Marsyas Agonistes" , Current Mttsicology 69 (2000), 118-1.62.

tt King Midas judged in favour of Marsyas, for which Apol-1o punished him by giving him ass's ears. This theme may havebeen a late addition to the Greek Marsyas or Midas myth. Thehistorical King Midas of Phrygia lived ca. 700 B.C. In Greekmythology, he was known above all for his capture of Silenos.

33

Ellen Van Keer , The Wth of Marsyas in Ancient Greek Art: Musical and Mythotogical lconography

He took her back to Dionysos, who awarded Midas with the giftthat everything he touched was tumed to gold. From the fourthcentury, he was given ass's ears by way of punishment. The nar-rative link with Apollo's resPonse to Midas' misjudgment in thecontest with Pan or Marsyas is of an even later date. Possibly, itwas not until the Hellenistic or Roman period that the story ofMidas was integrated with the Marsyas myth. In this period, Gre-co-Roman and Eastem cultures were in close contact, resultingin substantial exchange. This means that numerous Eastem ele-ments from the ancient Marsyas mythology may well be from avery late date. Cf. Margaret C. Miller, "Midas", LIMC VIII.I$99n,846-851. A first blend of Greek and Eastem religions andmusic occurred in the orientalising period (seventhcentury B.C.).It was already at this stage that the legendary Phrygtan flutistOlympos entered the Greek world. By contrast, Marsyas' in-fluence was not felt unUl well into the classical period' The riseof the two figures in Phrygia seems to have been mutually inde-pendent. Cf. Anne H. Weis, "Olympos" LIMC VIII.1 (L99n,38-45. The flute could also have originated independently. It is noteven sure that it actually originated in Phrygia. Its historicalroots are unclear and already a matter of debate in ancient times.For Pausanias it took roots in Troizen (2,31',3) but also Thebesmade a claim for it (Pind. Pyth 12). Ct. Martin L. West, AncientGre ek Mrr si c (Oxford : Clarendon, 1,992), esp. 80-84 and 330 -332, utirrfro.

lt For the symbolical-structural approach to the myth ofMarsyas cf. Jean-Pierre Vemant, La mort dans les yeux: Figtres deI'Autre en Gr\ce ancienne (Paris: Hachette, 1985), esp. L3; Berna-dette Leclercq-Neveu, "Marsyas, le martyr de l'aulos", Mdtis 4(1989), 251.-268.More general Marcel Detienne, "Mythes grecs etanalyse strucfurale: Controverses et probl0mes", II mito greco: Attidel conaegnointernazionale (lJrbino, 6-'12maggio1173). Ed. by Bru-no Gentili & Giuseppe Paioni (Roma: Editore dell'Steneo eBizzarri, 1,97n, 69 -89.

ta Cf. Richard Buxton, lmaginary Greece:The Contexts of W-tlroto gy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1,994), esp. 1 82-193. The complementarity of the different approaches is substan-tiated in an analysis of the myth of Oedipous by Jun Btemmet,"Oedipus and the Greek Oedipus Complex", lnterpretations ofGreek Mythology. Ed. by J. Bremmer (London: Croom Helm,'t98n,47-59.

tu uepi piv ydp cul,6v 6 pev ug 69q tbv Metrcvtnni"-6qv xc.\rirg iv tQ Mopouq 6tcoupowo tilv ou\nxi1veipqrcevcr uepi trlg A0qvog (fr. 2 B)' a piv' A0cvc t6pY-ov' dpptryev 0' iepag cud Xepdg eine t' 'dppet' c[o1ec,ocbpon trupaipts 6' eyd rqrdrcrrt 6i6rrlpt. English transla-tion from Andrew Barker, Greek MttsicalWritings: I ' TIrc Musicinna n d H is A rf (Cambrid ge : Cambrid ge University Ptess, 1984), 27 3'

1o Myron's group was reconstructed on the basis of a statueof Marsyas from Rome, Musei Vaticani, 9975 (Lateran 379a) anda statue of Athena from Frankfurt, Liebighaus, 195: Pierre De-margne, "Athena", LIMCII.1 (1984), L0l'5, no. 623a (illustrated);A. Weis, "Marsyas",369,no. Ba (illustrated).

t7 The Attic vases depicting the myth of Athena and Mar-syas. A red-figured choes,Betlin, Staatlichen Museen, Antiken-sammlung, F 241 8, ca. M0 -430 B. C. : Karl Schefold, D ie G t)tter s a gein der klassisclen und lullenistischen Krmst (Mtinchen: Hirmer,l. 981 ), fi a hg. 231 ; A. Weis, " Mar sy as", 3 69, no' 9a. A red-figuredfragment,Athens, Acropolis Museum, 632, ffid-fifth century B.C,meurner of the Phiale Painter: John D. Beazley, Attic Red-FigueVase-Painters (Oxford: Clarendon, 7963)2,1024, no.3; A. Weis," Mat sy as", 369, no. 9 (illustrated). A red-fi gu rcd b ell-kr ater, Ruvo,

34

Iatta,l7}8,end of the fifth century B.C., circle of the Pothos Pain-ter: Anne H. Weis, "The Marsyas of Myron: Old Problems andNew Evidence", AJA 83 (1'979), 2'16-217, pl. 31 hg. 0; Idem," Matsy as", 370, no. 1.6.

18 First John Boardman, "Some Attic Fragments: Pots, Pla-ques and Dithyrambs" ,lHS76 (1956),1.8-25; still A. Weis, "Mar-

syas",376.t' As commonly suggested when scenic objects are depict-

ed, such as a column with a tripod (a tripod was dedicated aftera performance), or when subjects are of an highly unusual orexactly identical theme as in the texts. Cf. an Apulian calyx-krater, Napoli, Museo Nazionale, H3370, first half of the fourthcentury 8.C., where Marsyas aPpears with the kithara. Thishighly unusual theme is explained by the fact that this is a'Phlyax vase', a type of vases that is linked to local performancesin South Italy. Marsyas and Apollo wear theatrical costumes anda mask. A tripod stand between them: Arthur D. Trendall , PhlyaxVases, BICS Suppl. 19 (London: Institute of Classical Studies,196n,40, no. 49,P1.4b; Heide Froning, Ditlryrambos und Vnsen-malereiin Athen.Beitrage zur Archa0logie 2 (Wiirzburg: Triltsch,1971),43,no. 3 with further sources, discussion and bibliography.

tu Cf. Pierre Somville, "Le signe d'extase et la musique",Kernos 5 (1,992),173-182. More generally: Gilbert Rouget, La mu-siEre et Ia trnnse: EsEtisse d'une th1orie gdndrale des relations de Iamusique et de la possession (Paris: Bibliothdque des sciences hu-maines, 1. 980), 267 -3'1.5.

21 It was Horatio's remark "ut pictura poesis" (as is paint-ing, so is poetry) that unintentionally higgered the debate on therelationship between literary and pictorial representations' Thedispute gathered momentum when Leonardo da Vinci, in Para'gone, rar*ed the art of painting first, and Lessing, in Laokoott,gave preference to the art of poetry. The battle continues untilthis very day. As far as the visual arts of ancient Greece are con-cemed, the issue has polarised the community of researchers.Carl Robert was the first to make out a case, in his Bild und Lied(1881), for abandoning the idea that vase painters did their jobsholding a papyrus roll in one hand and a brush in the other'Louis Sechan, however, in his Etudes sur Ia tragddie grecque dansses rapports naec la cdramique (1926), demonstrated that certainvase scenes ware undeniably text-bound. The non-philologicalapproach at presently prevails. Cf. Oliver Taplin, Comic Angelsand Other Approaches to Greek Drnma through Vase-Painting(Oxford: Clarendon, 1993), esp. 21'-23 with biblio graphy.

22 There is a general growing awareness about this. Cf.Frangoise Th6lamon & Pauline Schmitt-Pantel, "Image et histoire:Illustration ou documertt?", hnage et cdramiEte Srecque: Actes futcolloque de Rouen (25-26 Noaembre 1982). Ed' by Franqois Lissar-rague & Frangoise Thdlamon (Rouen: Presses de l'Universit6,1983), 9-20;Lambert Schneider, "Bild und Text als Gegenstiindehistorischer Forschung und als Vermittler von Geschichte" , Gytn-nasium 92 (1985),30-46; Theodore K. Rabb & ]onathan Brown,"The Evidence of Art: Images and Meaning in History" , Art andHistory: Images andTheir Meaning.Ed.by Robert I. Rotberg, Theo-dore K. Rabb & Jonhatan Brown (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-versity Press, 1988), 1-6. They all argue that images are to be stu-died as relatively autonomous sources vis-i-vis texts. Researchin this direction of ancient Greek culture and mythology is alsoexpanding rapidly. Cf. Simon Goldhill & Robin Osobome, eds.,Art and Text in Ancient Greek Culture (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1994); Keith N. Rutter & Brian Sparkes, eds.,Word and Image in Ancient Gree ce (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univer-sity Press, 2000), to mention just two recent English works.

* Attic black-figured neck-amphora, Basel, private collec-

Music in ATIXXIX/I-2 (2004)

tion, ca. 520-510 B.C.: P. Demargne, op. cit.,1014, no' 617 (illus-trated); |ohn Boardman, "Herakles Musikos" , LIMC IV'1 (1988),811, no. 1.M1.; ut infra.

2a Apulian neck-amphora, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts,00348, ca.370-360 8.C., Painter of Boston 00348: Arthur D' Tren-dall & Alexander Cambitoglot, Red Figtre Vases of Apulia (Ox-ford: Clarendon, 1978), vol. I, 267, no. 48; P. Demargne 1'984,101.4, no. 620 (illustrated); A. Weis, "Olympos" ,39,no'4;utinfra'

ts Also literature indicates that Athena was not unfavour-able to the flute in south ltaty. The dithyrambic poet Telestes ofselinus (fourth century B.C.) could not believe that the clevergoddess Athena, frightened by her ugliness, disposed of the flute,so that it could become the glory of Marsyas. How could beautyhave been of any concem to Athena? Telestes considers this storyas a jealous imputation of stupid bards against a clever att (ap.Athen, XlY, 61'6f-617 a).

26 ZozieP apadopoulou & Vincianne Pirenne-Delfot ge, " ln-venter et r6inventerl'aulos: autour de la XIIe Pythique de Pin-dare", Clunter les Dieux: Musique et religion dans I' Antiquit' grecqueetrornaine. Actes du colloques des16,17 et18 decembre 1999 iRenneset Lorient. Ed. by Pierre Brul6 & Christophe vendries (Rennes:Presses universitaires, 2001'), 37 -58.

27 Cf. particularly Annie B6lis, "La phorbeia", BCH 110(1986),205-21.8.

2E rd y&p uq.l,qtdv, 6ro9 ei.g Metrqvumi"6qv tdv rriv6t0up&pprov nor4'rqv, ouFPePrSe toir5 ou\t&5 nop& trivuoqtrilv l,oppavew toirg ptoOot5, npcotcrYovtstoDorls6ql,ovort t4g uoqoerog, t<iv 6' cru\ triv uuqp€rouwovtoig 6t6coral,otg fr riorepov 6b xcri-ro0ro 6u90apq': Eng-lish translation from Arthur Pickard-Cambridge, Dithyramb,Trage dy a,nd Come dy (Oxford: Clarendon, 1'962)2' 1 8-1 9'

tn Cf. Eric Csapo, "The Politics of the New Music", Mttsicand the Muses: The Crtlture of 'Mousike' in tlrc Classical AthenianCity.Ed..by Penelope Murray & Peter Wilson (Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 2004), esP. 213.

3u Nornoi were precisely defined melodical structures witha proper program that served a specific use. The Greeks knewfour kindi ol nomoi: the nomos kitlwrodikos, a musical piece forkithara and voice, the nomos aulodikos, for aulos and voice, the ro-mos auletikos, only for the aulos and the nomos kitharistikos, just forthekithara. Cf. SolonMichaelides, The Musicof AncientGreece: AnEncyclopedia (London: Faber, 1978), s.v. "nomos",222' The sameterm was used for denoting laws. Plato, to violate the musical,laws, would also subvert the social and political order (Resp.4,424b-c).

'1 t&v tlot6dv rcrrdorqoe lltepiS pcoi-\etqv' 6 6' cutrdg

iiorepov XopsDerco, rcri ycp eoO' uurlpdtcS' English hansla-tion irom A. Barker, AGNIWI,273.T61s quotation has long beenconnected with the rather p:uzzling lyre playing and singtngprocession of satyrs on an Attic red-figured bell-krater with theinscrip tion' sin gers at the Panathenaia', N ew York, MetropolitanMuselm of Art, 25.7 8'66, ca' 425-420 8.C., Polion : ARV2 117, no'8; E. Simon , op. cit,,1l'L9, no. 97.Fot many scholars they present'as does the myth of Marsyas, a conscious allegory of the victor ofthe new lyre music over the flute music: T.B.L. Webster, The GreekClnnts (London: Methuen: 1970)'133 hg'9'

32 The antagonismbetween t}re aulos and the word (logos!)is also present in the critique of Alcibiades who considers theflute noi worthy to be played by a free man, but only suitable forThebans who are not able to communicate (ap' Plut' Alc' 2,5-6)'According to Aristoteles it is plausible that Athena, being a god-

dess of wisdom, discards of the flute because it has nothing to dowith the mind, rather than out of horrification with her ugly facewhile playing the instrument (Pol' 8,6,1341b).

33 This idea also occurs in Plato's writings, when he comPa-res Socrates to Marsyas, not only because of their physical re-semblance but also for their similar enthralling effects on theiraudience (Symp. 215b-c).

3a For the music historical approach to the myth of Marsyascf. in Frieder Zaminer, "Musik im archaischen und klassischenGriechenland" , Die Musik des Altertums. Ed. by Frieder Zaminer& Albrecht Riethmiiller (Laaber: Laaber-Verlag, 1989), 17 0-17 4;

John G. Landels, Mrtsic in Ancient Greece nnd Rome (London: Rout-ledge, 7999),153-159.

tu The preserved texts with musical notation are discussedinEggertPohlmann c Martin L. West, Doaunents of AncientGreekt4uiii: The Extant Melodies and Fragnenfs (Oxford: Oxford Uni-versity Press, 2001). Preserved remains of musical instrumentsare discussed in warren D. Anderson, Music and Mttsicians irtAncient Greece (Ithaca: Comell University Press, 1997),171'-1'86:'Fifth Century Instrumental Resources"; El6ni Andrikou e'a',eds.,Dons des Muses: Musique et danse danslaGtDce ancienne. Expo-sition aux Musies Royaux d'art et d'histoire 26p.-25fip.003 (Athdnes:Ministdre de la culture de la r6publique Hel16nique,2003),155-203: " catalogue des instruments de musique" with bibliographyand illustrations.

'u As does Max Wegner, MusikundTanz. Archeologica Ho-merica. Die Denkmiiler und das Friihgriechische Epos' Ed' byFriedrich Matz & Hans-Giinther Buchholz. vol. III:U (C6ttingen:Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, L968). The other way around, how-ever, as sound is not preserved in the historical record, music isfrequently overlooked by non-musicological scholarship.Although it was all around in Greek culture, music has becomea prerofative of music historians. These are traditionally primari-ly conclmed with musical practice, instrumentation, notation,ti."ory and philosophy, i.e' musical " art" ' Ancient Greek cultureproduced the first "historical" music: texts with musical notation,theoretical treatises about music, literature about music. Thesetexts stand are the core sources of ancient Greek music history.But ancient Greek music largely exceeds our historical concept ofmusic. It was no distinguished form of art but a socio-culturalpractice which was fundamentally embedded in religious andcultural life. This omnipresence is not adequately reflected in thefew ,direct' musical sources at our disposal. The bulk of relevantinformation is provided indirectly to us through descriptions inliterature, representations in iconography and material remainsin the archaeological record. From different scientific angles theawareness grows that the study of ancient Greek music historycan not reJtrict itself to the traditional "historical" study ofmusic, to the canonical "historical" sources, nor to the purely"historical" sfudy of religious, literary, and visual sources' Cf'Brenno Boccadoro, "Le corps et l'esprit de la musique grecque"/La musique et la danse dans l;antiquit'i: Regards sur les collections duMusde d,art et d'hisotire de GenDae. Ed. by Patrizia Birchler-Emeryet al. (Gendve: Unit6 d'archeologie classique de l'universit6'1,996), 1'5-1'9; Penelope Murray & Peter Wilson, " Mousiki, notmusic", Mrtsic and tlrc Muses: Tle Crtlture of 'Mousilee' in theClassical Athenian City.Ed. by Penelope Murray & Peter Wilson(Oxford: Oxford University Press,2004), 1-8'

t7 For this approach cf' Bernhard Aign, Die Geschiclfte derMusikinstrumente des Agriisclrcn Raume s bis wn 700 oor chr. (Frank-furt am Main: Dissertation J.W. von Goethe-Universitiit,1963);Daniel Paquette, L' instrument de musique d'aptis Ia c'ramique de IaGrice antifue: Etude d'organologie (Paris: De Boccard ,1'984)'

35


36

38 Campanian oinochoe, Adolphseck, Schloss Fasanerie, 165,second half of the fourth century B.C., Painter of Napels 146751:Arthur D. Trendall, The Red-Figured Vases of Lucania, Campania andSicily (Oxford: Clarendon, 1967), 288, no. 453; D. Paquette, op. cit.,44, no. A20 (illustrated).

39 Paestan lekanis, Paris, Louvre, K 570, mid-fourth centuryB.C., Assteas: Arthur D. Trendall, Paestan Pottery (London: BritishSchool at Rome, 1936), 116, no. 51; D. Paquette, op. cit., 146, no.C47 (partly illustrated); Annie Queyrel, �“Mousai�”, LIMC VI.1(1992), 670, no. 109; Linda Lopinto, La musica degli dei: Gli stru-menti musicali nell�’iconografia di Apollo sulla ceramica italiota (Fasa-no: Schena, 1995), 108, no. 49P (fully illustrated).

40 Attic red-figured volute-krater, Ruvo, Jatta, 1093, ca. 410B.C., Painter of Kadmos: ARV2, 1184, no. 1; D. Paquette, op. cit,158, no. L21 (partly illustrated); A. Weis, �“Marsyas�”, 373, no. 43(fully illustrated).

41 For this approach cf. Tilman Seebass, �“The Power ofMusic in Greek Vase Painting: Reflections on the Visualization ofRhythmos (Order) and Epaoidè (Enchanting Song)�”, Imago musicaeVIII (1991), 11-37.

42 In images of dance or symposia the aulos is typical, whilethe kithara is strikingly absent. In ancient Greece, the aulos isoriginally the most typical musical instrument of satyrs, beingplayed in their exalted processions. On the contrary, in proces-sions of gods typically only the kithara is present, in particular tocharacterize Apollo. Cf. Anemone Zschätzsch, Verwendung undBedeutung griechischer Musikinstrumente in Mythos und Kult (Rha-den: Leidorf, 2002), 88-89 (satyrs) en 35-38 (Apollo).

43 Mimetic corporeal responses to sound and rhythm mightbe at the (biological) origins of music more generally AndréSchaeffner, Origine des instruments de musique: Introduction ethno-logique à l�’histoire de la musique instrumentale (Paris: Payot, 1963),13-35: �“origines corporelles�”. More particularly Daniela Castaldo,Il Pantheon musicale: Iconografia nella ceramica attica tra VI e IV secolo(Ravenna: Longo, 2000), esp. 166-167.

44 For this approach cf. Gullög C. Nordquist, �“InstrumentalMusic in Representations of Greek Cult�”, The Iconography of GreekCult in the Archaic and Classical Periods: Proceedings of the First In-ternational Seminar on Ancient Greek Cult, Organised by the SwedishInstitute at Athens and the European Cultural Centre of Delphi (Delphi,16�–18 November 1990), Kernos suppl. 8. Ed. by Robin Hägg (Liège:Centre d�’étude de la religion grecque antique, 1992), 143-68; AnnaMaria Di Giulio, �“Iconografie degli strumenti musicali nell�’arteApula�”, La musica in Grecia: Atti del Convegno internazionale sullamusica Greca.Urbino, 18�–20/10/1985. Ed. by Bruno Gentili &Roberto Pretagostini (Bari: Laterza, 1988), 108-120.

45 Athena plays the kithara on an Attic black-figured (pseu-do)panathenaic amphora, Berlin, Staatlichen Museen, Antiken-sammlung, F 2161, ca. 500 B.C., Nixenos Painter: ARV², 221.7; P.Demargne, op. cit., 1011, no. 585 (illustrated). Cf. further D. Castal-do, �“Il pantheon�”, 268�–269, no. 29-30; A. Zschätzsch, op. cit., 15,no. 1�–6 with a discussion of the music of the aulos in Athena�’s cult.Heracles plays the pipes on a red-figured Attic stamnos, Firenze,Museo Archeologico, 4227, second quarter fifth century B.C., Po-lygnotos: ARV², 1028, no. 11; J. Boardman, �“Herakles�”, 814, no.1477 (illustrated) with further sources, discussion and bibliogra-phy. Cf. also A. Zschätzsch, op. cit., 117-121, no. 1-57.

46 For this approach cf. Luigi Beschi, �“La prospettiva miticadella musica greca�”, Religion, mythologie, iconographie: Actes ducolloque international de Rome, 19 mai 1989, MEFRA 103. Ed. byLilly Kahil & Pascale Linant de Bellefonds (Roma: École françaisede Rome, 1991), 35-50; Donatella Restani, �“Music and Myth inAncient Greece�”, Music and Anthropology II (1997), on-line at

<http: //research.umbc.edu/eol/MA/index/number2/restani/dona0. html>.

47 D. Paquette, op. cit, 8.48 Cf. Martha Maas & Jane McIntosh Snyder, Stringed Instru-

ments of Ancient Greece (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989),113-138: �“The Barbitos in Classical Athens�”.

49 A satyr plays kithara to Dionysos on an early Attic black-figured hydria, London, British Museum, B302, ca. 520�–510 B.C.,manner of the Lysippides Painter: ABV², 261, no. 40; Thomas H.Carpenter, Dionysian Imagery in Archaic Greek Art: Its Developmentin Black-figure Vase Painting (Oxford: Clarendon, 1990), 114 pl. 32;D. Castaldo �“Il pantheon�”, 218, no. 115 with further sources anddiscussion. Dionysos plays the kithara on an Attic red-figuredfragment, Orvieto, Faina collection, 64, ca. 530�–520 B.C., Andoni-kes Painter: ARV², 3, no. 5; A. Zschätzsch, op. cit., 79, no. 1, pl. 8bwith further sources and discussion. A Muse plays the aulos toApollo on an Attic bell-krater, Wien, Kunsthistorisches Museum,697, Danaë Painter, ARV², 1075, no. 11, G. Kokorou-Alewras�“Apollo von Frauen Umgeben�”, LIMC II.1 (1984), 270, no. 697c(illustrated) with further sources and discussion. It appears thatthe other way around the maenads can play on the kithara toApollo. Here we detect a huge discrepancy between image andtext. In literature we know Apollo with his kithara besides as amusagetes (leader of the Muses), also as leader of the nymphs(nymphegetes) and of the moires (moiragetes). It is only in Attic artthat, from the end of the fifth century B.C. onwards, he is quiteoften surrounded by the maenads, playing mostly on the smalllyra, and sometimes on their most characteristic krotala (castanet-tes) and exceptionally the kithara.

50 Cf. Donatella Restani, �“Dionysos tra aulos e kithara: Unpercorso di iconografia musicale�”, Dioniso: Mito e misteri. Atti delconvegno internazionale, Comacchio, 3�–5 novembre 1989. Ed. by FedeBerti (Bologna: Nuova Alfa Editoriale, 1991), 379-395; DanielaCastaldo, �“Dionysos and the Music: Notes on the Musical Ico-nography�”, Journal of Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Archaeology1 (2003), online at <http://www.jiia.it/JIIA.it/Sezione_II/JIIA_01/Castaldo_D01/Articolo_D01/Castaldo_articolo_pag1.html>.

51 In the thiasos (the retinue of Dionysos) the horde typicallydances on the tones of the aulos (often played by satyrs) and to therhythm of the krotala (characteristic instrument of the mainades),cf. an Attic black-figured kylix Mississippi University, 1977.3.105,ca. 480 B.C., Makron: ARV², 462, no. 42, Carlo Gasparri, �“Diony-sos�”, LIMC 463�–464 no. 469 (illustrated) with further sources anddiscussion. The musicians accompanying Apollo as kitharodetypically consists of the Muses, who might sing to the God�’smusic, as is indicated by the presence of a scroll cf. an Atticlekythos Hannover, Kestner-museum, 1961.24, ca. 440 �–430 B.C.,Phiale Painter: ARV² 1021, no. 107bis, G. Kokorou-Alewras, op.cit., 269, no. 690a (illustrated) with further sources and discussion.Also when poets sing their poetry to their stringed instrument inmythological contexts, they are typically listened to by Apolloand the Muses. This is always the case when mythical poets suchas Musaios or Thamyras perform. The latter, for that matter, evenengaged in a singing contest with the Muses, which of course helost.

52 Dionysos sings to his music on a famous Attic red-figuredkylix, Paris, Cabinet des Medailles, 576, ca. 500�–480 B.C., ByrgosPainter: ARV², 371, no. 14; C. Gasparri, op. cit., 463, no. 465 (illus-trated); A. Zschätzsch, op. cit., 79, no. 4; all with further sourcesand discussion. Apollo dances to his music on an early Atticblack-figured kylix, Allard Pierson Museum, 13.367, sixth centuryB.C., Taras Painter, Gerda Jurriaans-Helle e.a., Mythen, mensen enmuziek: Een expositie over muziek in de oudheid (Amsterdam: Allard


37

Pierson Museum, 1999), 34, no. 5, 24 fig. 64.53 As such the word �‘music�’ only turns up in the course of

the fifth century B.C. (Pind. Ol. 1, 14-15). Many words related tomusic of course already existed much longer, such as the namesof musical instruments, of particular songs, and so on. Cf. S. Mi-chaelides, op. cit., 213-216 for the sources, a discussion and furtherbibliography.

54 E. Winternitz, op. cit, esp. 37.55 For the purely mythological aspects of the music of the

aulos cf. Françoise Frontisi-Ducroux, �“Athéna et l�’invention de laflûte�”, Musica e storia 2 (1994), 239-268; Francesco Molina, �“Quin-teto para Dioses músicos en la mitología Griega�” EClás 40/113(1998), 7-35.

56 Attic red-figured panathenaic amphora, Napoli, MuseoArcheologico, 81401, end of the fifth century B.C., Meidias Pain-ter: ARV², 1316, no. 1; A. Weis, �“Olympos�”, 39, no. 3 (illustrated).

57 This integration, which is made explicit here, is also im-plicitly present in many other representations. In fact in thecourse of the fifth century B.C. the maenads and the Muses be-come in general less distinguishable because they get to sharemore and more characteristics. They both play lyra and the krotala,with which they often appear in the presence of Apollo themusician. Because of this assimilation also the same iconographi-cal schemes get to be used in Apollonian as well as Dyonisiancontexts cf. Anne Queyrel, �“Scènes apolliniennes et dionysiaquesdu peintre de Pothos�”, BCH 108 (1984), 123-159.

58 The oldest representation of Olympos might be found ona black-figured (pseudo)protopanathenaic amphora, Athens,National Museum, 559, ca. 570 B.C.: ABV², 85, no. 1; Alan H.Shapiro, �“Mousikoi Agones: Music and Poetry at the Panathe-naia�”, Goddess and Polis: The Panathenaic Festival in Ancient Athens.Ed. by Jenifer Neils (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992),66 fig. 41; A. Weis �“Olympos�”, 43, no. 45. Here Olympos appearsas flute player independent of and long before the myth ofMarsyas gained popularity in Athens.

59 For the purely music historical aspects of the mythologyof the aulos cf. Hanelore Thiemer, Der Einfluss der Phryger auf diealtgriechische Musik (Bonn: Verlag für systematische Musikwissen-schaft, 1963); Peter Wilson, �“The Aulos in Athens�”, PerformanceCulture and Athenian Democracy. Ed. by Simon Goldhill & RobinOsborne (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 58-95.In particular Alexandra Goulaki-Voutira, �“Observations onDomestic Music Making in Vase Paintings of the Fifth CenturyB.C.�”, Imago musicae VIII (1991), 73-94 observes that the onlyinvariable fact is that the flute and the lyre are never played si-multaneously, also in mythological representations. Even scrolls(indicating words and songs) appear with lyre players as well aswith flute players. Muses with scrolls even show up in represen-tations of Marsyas playing the flute, and thus indicating that heengaged in an aulodic contest, not just an instrumental auleticcontest [fig. 6].

60 Attic red-figured bell-krater, Paris, Louvre, G490, ca. 410B.C., Pothos Painter: ARV², 1190, no. 21; A. Queyrel, �“Mousai�”,

669, no. 103 (illustrated).61 Note that the aulos had been contested long before the

appearance of the new music. Pausanias tells us that during thefirst Pythian games which were organised in Olympia at the be-ginning of the sixth century B.C. the flute player Saccadas hadbeen able to take away the resentment against the flute since Mar-syas (2,22,8-9). Yet the purely instrumental musical contests forthe flutes (auletikos) were dropped as soon as the next gamesbecause this music was perceived of as to sad (10,7,3-5).

62 In fact from the beginning of the fifth century B.C., the so-phisticated kithara became the preferred instrument of the pro-fessional musicians to demonstrate their virtuosity in musicalcontests held at religious festivals. These contests between kitharaplayers reached their zenith in the course of the fifth century B.C.and their rising popularity was simultaneous with a decliningnumber of ceramic representations of the instrument, and parti-cularly in association with Apollo, who was increasingly depictedplaying the smaller lyre. Like the aulos, the kithara fell victim tothe new music, and hence from Apollo�’s grace into Marsyas�’hands. Cf. Susanna Sarti, �“La kithara greca nei documenti ar-cheologici�”, RBPhH 81 (2003), 47-68.

63 Marsyas leads the thiasos playing with his flute music onan Attic bell-krater, Paris, Louvre G 421, ca. 440�–430 B.C., Peleus-or Hector Painter: ABV², 1073, no. 1, Brinna Otto, �“Marsyas insThiasos�”, JbBadWürtt 12 (1975), 21-38 with further sources anddiscussion; E. Simon, op. cit., 1115, no. 46 (illustrated).

64 Jean Rudhardt, Du mythe, de la religion grecque et de lacompréhension d�’autrui. Cahiers Vilfredo Pareto: Revue Européen-ne des Sciences Sociales (Génève: Droz, 1981), esp. 177-187.

65 Precisely as Dionysos does. Dionysos himself never playsthe aulos, although it was the accompanying instrument for hismain cult song, the dithyramb. Apollo neither plays the aulos.Nevertheless this instrument was used to accompany his princi-pal cult song as well, the pean. A. Zschätsch, op.cit, 29-62 (Apollo)and 79-98 (Dionysos).

66 Marble sculptured basis found in Mantinea (1888), now inAthens, National Museum, 215, ca. 335 B.C., Praxitelian: A. Weis,�“Marsyas�”, 370, no. 24 (illustrated). Between Marsyas and Apollostands the Skyth who will skin the satyr by order from the god.(Hyg. Fab. 165). The bibliography on this work of art is enormous.The reliefs are studied from many different scientific angles: arthistory (as it is a highly valued sculpture from the circle of Praxi-teles), cultural history (as the representations contain informationabout the Greek attitudes towards Phrygians and Skythians), his-tory of religions (as indicating the importance of musical contestsin the cult of Apollo in the Greek world), mythology (as a repre-sentation relating to the mythological musical contest betweenMarsyas and Apollo), musicology (as varying many musical in-struments are depicted). I hope to have shown that the musicalsignificance of this representation on itself is also very complexand that a one-sided reductionist �‘anti-Marsyas�’ or �‘anti-flute�’approach does injustice to it.

ellen van keer, the myth of marsyas in ancient greek art: musical … · 2013-03-23 · hellenic,...

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