Ancient Greek Art: The Contest of Apollo & Marsyas

Music contest of Apollo & Marsyas, with the Muses | Greek vase, Athenian red figure krater

"Marsyas learns that breath creates sound; and, fingering the pipe, he blows and draws in air. And now boasted of his art to the Nymphae. He challenges Phoebus, too. Phoebus won, he hung. His flayed limbs separated from their skin." - Ovid, Fasti 6.697

K20.2 THE CONTEST OF APOLLON & MARSYAS

Museum Collection: British Museum, London, United Kingdom
Catalogue Number: London 1917.7-25.2
Beazley Archive Number: 217933
Ware: Attic Red Figure
Shape: Bell krater
Painter: Attributed to Meleager Painter
Date: ca 380 BC
Period: Late Classical

SUMMARY

Marsyas challenges Apollon to a musical contest. The god arrives on the back of a swan playing his lyre. The satyros stands to the far right with his arm raised. Two Mousai (Muses) are seated, one holding a lyre, reading to judge the contest. In the centre stands the pine tree to which the defeated Marsyas is destined to be tied and flayed.

ARTICLESApollon, Marsyas, Mousai