A Roman copy of a bronze original group by Myron.
The myth runs as follows. The goddess Athena invented the flute, but threw it away because it distorted her face to play it. Marsyas, a satyr, picked it up and having taught himself to play, rashly challenged Apollo to a musical contest. Needless to say the musical god Apollo won and Marsyas was killed for his cheek.
Here we see the bearded Marsyas gleefully spotting the musical instrument on the ground where Athena has thrown it. The story was a well-known one in the ancient Greek world, and the figures of Athena and Marsyas are seen in poses very similar to these on vase paintings and coins
Rome, Vatican, Lateran 225
Purchased in 1884 from Malpieri of Rome
Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 139 (n.9)
Richter: Sculpture & Sculptors of the Greeks (1950), 209-, fig.584
Arias: Mirone, 18,1, pl. V.17-18, pl. VI.19
Walston: Catalogue of Casts in the Museum of Classical Archaeology (1889), 32, no.120
Lawrence: Classical Sculpture (1928), 180-, pl. 46.1
Rhys Carpenter: Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome XVIII (1941), 5-, pls. 2,3,5
Found on the Esquiline Hill in Rome in 1823
