Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/977

MARSYAS. Maisyas upon the tlute ; 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 Avere dedicated to Apollo in his temple at Sicyon. (Apollod. Bibl. i. 4. § 2 ; Palaeph. de Incredih. 48 ; Liban. Narrat. 14, p. 1104 ; Nonn. Narrat. ad Greg. Invect ii. 10, p. 164; Diod. iii. 58, 59 ; Paus. ii. 7. § 9 ; Herod, vii, 26 ; Xen. Anab. i. 2. § 8 ; Plut. de Fiuv. 10 ; Hygin. Fab. 165 ; Ovid, Mctam. vi. 382, 400.) The fable evidently refers to the struggle between the citharoedic and auloedic styles of music, of which the former Avas 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 ex- planation to the ditferent 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. 1 132, a. ; Suid. s. v. ; Athen. iv. p. 184, a., xiv. p. 616, 617 ; Plin. H.N. vii. 5Q.) By a confusion between the mythical and the his- torical, the flute-player Olympus is made his son, or by some his father. He is spoken of as a fol- lower of Cybele (Diod. I. c), and he occupies, in fact, the same place in the orgiastic worship of Cybele that Seilenus does in the worship of Dio- nysus : Pausanias {I.e.) 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, Gesck. d. Lyr. Dichtk. vol. ii. pp. 296, 2f)7; Brunck, ^wa/. vol. i. p. 488, vol. ii. p. 97), and f(u-med a favourite subject for works of art. (Miiller, Archaol. 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, shice Marsyas was a minister of Bacchus, the god of liberty. (Serv. in Aen. iv. 528.) It seems more likely that the statue, standing in the place where justice was ad- ministered, was intended to hold forth an example of the severe punishment of arrogant presumption. (B(ittiger, Kleine Sehriften, vol. i. p. 28.) The statue of Marsyas in the forum of Rome is well known by the allusions of Horace {Sat. i. 6. 120), Juvenal {Sat. ix. 1 , 2), and Martial (ii. 64. 7). This statue was the place of asstunbly for the courtezans of Rome, who used to crown it with chaplets of flowers. (Plin. H. N. xxi. 3 ; Senec. de Bene/, vi. 32 ; Lipsius, Antiq. Led. 3.) [P. S.] MA'RSYAS {Maptrvas), general of the Alex- andrians in their revolt against Ptolemy Physcon. He was taken prisoner by Hegelochus, the com- mander of the king's forces, and carried before Ptolemy, who, however, spared his life. (Diod. Sxo. Vales, p. 603.) [E. H. B.] MA'RSYAS (Mapaias), literary. Three his- torical writers of this name are mentioned by Suidas {s. %i. Mapcruas), but there seems no doubt that this arises either from an error of Suidas him- self or a corruption of his text, and that there were MARSYAS. i)6"3 I in fact only two. (See Bernhardy, ad Suid. I. c. ; Droysen, Hellenism, vol. i. p. 679.) 1. Son of Periander, a native of Pella, in Mace- donia, 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 An- tigonus 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 {ypaixixaroZi- dda-KaKos)., 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 conmaand one division of his fleet in the great sea-fight of Salamis, B.C. 306. (Diod. xx. 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 liistory 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 re- turn of that monarch into Syria, after the conquest of Egypt and the foundation of Alexandria. (Suid. I. c.) It is repeatedly cited by Athenaeus, Plu- tarch, Harpocration, and other writers. Whether the TO. irepl 'AAe^ai'dpov which are twice quoted by Harpocration {s. v. 'Apicrrioiv, MapylrTjs) 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 {avrov tov 'AKe^dvSpov 070)7771') as a separate work, and ascribes, moreover, to the elder Marsyas a treatise on the history or anti- quities of Athens {'Attikoi), in twelve books, which Bernhai-dy and Geier consider as being the same with the dpxaioKo'yia^ the work of the younger historian of this name. 2. Of Philippi, commonly called the Younger (d v€WT€pos), 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. xi. p. 467, c.) The works of his which we find cited, are, ]. Ma/ceSo- viKd, whether a geographical or strictly historical treatise is uncertain ; it contained at least six books. (Harpocr. 5. V. Atjttj.) 2. ' Apxaiooyla^ in twelve books, mentioned by Suidas ; probably, as suggested by Geier, the same with the 'AttikcI attributed by the lexicographer to the elder Mar- syas. 3. Mv$iKd, 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. Td§ai), and that the worka ascribed to him belong in fact to Marsyas of Phi- lippi. All tlie questions concerning both the elder and 3a 2