The Flaying of Marsysas

Today in class we talked about the Tale of Marsysas from the tales from Ovid. Dr. Sexton told us that this story was not included in our translation of Ovid so I decided to do some research of my own on the story.

Here is the myth:

The story of Marsyas and Apollo is superficially simple: Athena, having invented the flute, realizes how she distorts her face in playing it. Cursing the instrument, she throws it away, whereupon it is picked up by Marsyas, who either doesn’t hear the curse or prefers to ignore it. Marsyas becomes a skilled player, so much so that he challenges Apollo to a contest.
The god wins, of course, though it is interesting to note that it is not always through honest means. Nearly all accounts indicate Apollo, rather than match Marsyas with instrument, plays upon his lyre; when it becomes apparent that Marsyas may, in fact, win, Apollo turns his lyre upside down and continues. Marsyas, with a flute, cannot. Whether through trickery or divine skill, what follows is defeat. As the terms of the contest clearly stated winner could do to the

loser whatever he liked, Apollo flays Marsyas alive.
“Why do you strip myself from me?” he cried.
“O I give in, I lose, forgive me now,
No hollow shin-bone’s worth this punishment.”
And as he cried the skin cracked from his body
In one wound, blood streaming over muscles,
Veins stripped naked, pulse beating; entrails could be
Counted as they moved; even the heart shone red
Within his breast.
The tale ends with Marsyas becoming the river of the same name: either through the tears of the contest’s spectators (woodland deities, mostly), or by his own blood as it left him.

As expected this is a very gruesome account. It makes my skin crawl to read it. As we were discussing in class it seems a human extreme. To have your very skin torn from your body is a torture that I can't even imagine. Ovid certainly seems to have quite an imagination for torture.

Here is the painting called "The Flaying of Marsysas"