The satyr who found Athena's cast-off pipes, rivalled Apollo in music, and was flayed alive when he lost — his tears became the river Marsyas in Phrygia, and Hyginus makes King Midas judge the contest on Tmolus.1
Apollodorus names Marsyas son of Olympus: he found the pipes Athena had thrown away because they disfigured her face, grew so skilled that he challenged Apollo, and lost — the victor hung him on a pine and stripped off his skin.2
Ovid tells how Marsyas cried that a flute was not worth his life as Apollo tore living skin from limbs until nerves and viscera lay exposed; fauns, satyrs, nymphs, and his pupil Olympus wept, and their tears sinking into Phrygian earth became the fountain of the river Marsyas.3
Hyginus records that Midas was taken as judge when Apollo contested with Marsyas on the pipes, and that when Tmolus gave victory to Phoebus, Midas said Marsyas deserved the prize — earning ass's ears from Apollo. Pausanias says the Phrygians of Celaenae held that the river passing through their city was once this great flute-player.4
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story