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Marsyas's Howl: The Myth of Marsyas in Ovid's Metamorphoses and Zbigniew Herbert's "Apollo and Marsyas"

Marsyas's Howl: The Myth of Marsyas in Ovid's Metamorphoses and Zbigniew Herbert's "Apollo and... COMPARATIVE LITERATURE /152 aesthetic implications. Reading and interpreting Herbert’s poem rereads and reinterprets Ovid’s text; “filling in” Ovid’s silences implies “filling in” those of Herbert as well. Herodotus (7.26; cf. 5.118) and Xenophon (Anab. 1.2.8) attest that the river Marsyas in Phrygia received its name from the foolish satyr who, after finding a flute, an instrument invented and discarded by Athena, challenges Apollo to a musical contest.1 Predictably, Marsyas loses, and Apollo punishes his hubris by having him flayed alive. Apollodorus (1.4.2) and Hyginus (Fab. 165), two mythographers of the second century CE, give a much more elaborate account of the story. Athena, intending to entertain the Olympians by playing the flute is mocked by the gods and retreats to Mount Ida to play alone. Looking at her reflection in a stream, however, she sees her cheeks ridiculously inflated and discards the instrument, cursing it.2 Marsyas finds the flute and becomes so proficient at playing it that he challenges the god of music himself, Apollo, to a contest, only to lose and meet his miserable fate at Apollo’s command. In Hyginus’s account of the story, the Muses judge the competition, giving Marsyas victory in the first round. In http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Comparative Literature Duke University Press

Marsyas's Howl: The Myth of Marsyas in Ovid's Metamorphoses and Zbigniew Herbert's "Apollo and Marsyas"

NIZYNSKA, JOANNA
Comparative Literature , Volume 53 (2) – Jan 1, 2001
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2001 by University of Oregon
ISSN
0010-4124
eISSN
1945-8517
DOI
10.1215/-53-2-151
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE /152 aesthetic implications. Reading and interpreting Herbert’s poem rereads and reinterprets Ovid’s text; “filling in” Ovid’s silences implies “filling in” those of Herbert as well. Herodotus (7.26; cf. 5.118) and Xenophon (Anab. 1.2.8) attest that the river Marsyas in Phrygia received its name from the foolish satyr who, after finding a flute, an instrument invented and discarded by Athena, challenges Apollo to a musical contest.1 Predictably, Marsyas loses, and Apollo punishes his hubris by having him flayed alive. Apollodorus (1.4.2) and Hyginus (Fab. 165), two mythographers of the second century CE, give a much more elaborate account of the story. Athena, intending to entertain the Olympians by playing the flute is mocked by the gods and retreats to Mount Ida to play alone. Looking at her reflection in a stream, however, she sees her cheeks ridiculously inflated and discards the instrument, cursing it.2 Marsyas finds the flute and becomes so proficient at playing it that he challenges the god of music himself, Apollo, to a contest, only to lose and meet his miserable fate at Apollo’s command. In Hyginus’s account of the story, the Muses judge the competition, giving Marsyas victory in the first round. In

Journal

Comparative Literature – Duke University Press

Published: Jan 1, 2001

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