The Contest Between apollon and Marsyas

By: Ann Huang

The music contest between Apollon, the god of music, and Marsyas is a famous Greco-Roman mythological story located in Asia Minor. Among the surviving classical texts, the earliest textual record relevant to the flaying of Marsyas can be found in Herodotus’ Histories (5th century BC,Histories 7.26). From this brief mention we can only infer that Marsyas was flayed by Apollon for some reason, though the entire story is unknown, although Herodotus’ casual tone possibly reflects that the rest of the story is too well-known already to be repeated in his book. According to later sources, Marsyas was flayed because of a music contest with Apollon. Upon hearing this myth, one may reasonably criticise Apollon for his cruel treatment of Marsyas. However, this article is going to focus on something more relevant to the music contest itself: How exactly did they compete, and who is the true winner? 

Fortunately, decades later, there came slightly more comprehensive accounts of the myth. Xenophon of Athens in his Anabasis (c. 370 BC) states that Apollon flayed Marsyas after defeating the latter in a music contest (Anabasis 1.2.8-9). Plato also indicates that Apollon won the contest by playing lyre or kithara while Marsyas’ pipes lost and, once again, confirms the famousness of this myth, by making Glaucon in his Republic (c. 375 BC) say that preferring Apollon’s musical instruments is, “not doing anything new” (Republic 3.399e, trans. C. J. Emlyn-Jones and W. Preddy). It then seems clear that, for these classical Greek authors, despite the excessive harshness of Apollon’s act afterwards, his success over Marsyas in music is undoubted. In addition, there are some painted pots with the imagery of Apollon and a satyr (a mythical creature with horse’s or donkey’s ears and tail) or silenus (an elderly satyr) (eg. Figure 1), in which the satyr with pipe is conventionally identified as Marsyas. 

In the following centuries, the authors of the Roman period provided more details of the story. Ovid (43 BC-c. 17 AD) mentions “a satyr” (presumably Marsyas’) boasting and Apollon’s eventual success and the flaying (Fasti 6.703-708), even describing the disturbing process of the flaying (Metamorphoses 6.382-398), Pseudo-Apollodorus (1st-2nd century AD) on the other hand, tells a more detailed version of the music contest: “They agreed that the victor should work his will on the vanquished, and when the trial took place Apollon turned his lyre upside down in the competition and bade Marsyas do the same. But Marsyas could not, So Apollon was judged the victor and dispatched Marsyas by hanging him on a tall pine tree and stripping off his skin” (Bibliotheca 1.4.2, trans. J. G. Frazer). From this account, we can learn that Apollon defeats Marsyas in the flexibility to play the musical instrument of his choice, or because of the particular characteristic of the musical instrument. The quality of their respective music, nevertheless, is left untold. Pseudo-Hyginus (c. 64 BC-17 AD) records a similar story twice, but mentions that the Muses were judges and Apollon asked a Scythian to flay Marsyas for him in one version (Fabulae 165) and, in another version, there were two judges, Timolus and Midas, who approved Apollon and Marsyas respectively, and Apollon punished Midas for his ‘unwise’ judgement (Fabulae 191). 

The most exhaustive version of this myth in existence  can be found in the Bibliotheca historica written by Diodorus of Sicily (1st century BC), which is composed slightly earlier than the writings of the aforementioned three authors. According to Diodorus, it seems that Marsyas was not a satyr but a Phrygian man and a companion of Cybele. In the first round of their competition, both he and Apollon simply played their respective musical instruments. The people of Nysa served as judges for their contest, and they judged Marsyas the winner by the strange music he made through his pipes and his melody. However, Marsyas and Apollon had agreed to display their skills in turn. So in the second round, Apollon sang while playing his lyre, combining the two sounds in harmony, and won the judges’ approval. Marsyas thought this judgement was unfair because the contest should not include a comparison between voices. However, Apollon claimed that Marsyas is also using his mouth (because he blew into the pipes) when playing his music. Therefore, according to Apollon, Marsyas was combining his two skills just like Apollon, or he could choose to enter the contest again and play his musical instrument without using his mouth. The judges were persuaded, so they compared for the third time and Marsyas was eventually judged the loser. Finally, Apollon flayed Marsyas alive out of rage, but he soon felt regretful about it and destroyed his lyre (Bibliotheca historica 3.59.1-6). Here, Apollon seems to win the contest in a way more rightful; the sophistic nature of his argument is quite visible. After all, he defeats Marsyas by his own singing ability. Diodorus’ mention of Apollon’s remorse also makes him a slightly more humane figure. 

In conclusion, the ancient Greek sources straightforwardly agree on Apollon’s undoubted success over Marsyas in music, while the later versions of this myth add ambiguity to the situation. It is equally improper to say that Marsyas defeated Apollon and explain the flaying by describing that, “he [Apollon] was a god, and tolerated no such insult as Marsyas’ challenge” (K. and R. Waterfield, The Greek Myths, 120). This mythical music contest ended up involving more than music itself, which somehow makes me sad. Why can’t we just enjoy the beautiful melody of music without fighting about the musical instruments’ superiority?