Apollodorus Library 1.4.2

ed. Sir James George Frazer

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Library. Apollodorus. ed. Sir James George Frazer. Cambridge, MA. 1921.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Library (English) (Apollodorus. The Library, Vol 1-2. Frazer, James George, Sir, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.)

Editions (1)
Βιβλιοθήκη Perseus (Apollodorus. The Library, Vol 1-2. Frazer, James George, Sir, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.) — 1.4.2 focus

Notes on the current edition

Library

1. As she played on the pipes, she is said to have seen her puffed and swollen cheeks reflected in water. See Plut. De cohibenda ira 6 ; Athenaeus xiv.7, p. 616ef ; Prop. iii.22(29). 16ff. ; Ovid, Fasti vi.697ff. ; Ovid, Ars Am. iii.505ff. ; Hyginus, Fab. 165 ; Fulgentius, Mytholog. iii.9 ; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. G.H.Bode, i. pp. 40, 114 (First Vatican Mythographer 125; Second Vatican Mythographer 115) . On the acropolis at Athens there was a group of statuary representing Athena smiting Marsyas because he had picked up the flutes which she had thrown away ( Paus. 1.24.1 ). The subject was a favourite theme in ancient art. See Frazer, note on Paus. 10.29.3 (vol. ii. pp. 289ff.) .
2. As to the musical contest between Marsyas and Apollo, and the punishment of the vanquished Marsyas, see Diod. 3.59 ; Paus. 2.22.9 ; Ov. Met. 6.382ff. ; Ovid, Fasti vi.703ff. ; Hyginus, Fab. 165 ; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 40, 114 (First Vatican Mythographer 125; Second Vatican Mythographer 115) . There has been some doubt as to the interpretation of the words τὴν κιθάραν στρέψας; but that they mean simply “turned the lyre upside down,” as Heyne correctly explained them, is shown by a comparison with the parallel passages in Hyginus (“ citharam versabat”) and the Second Vatican Mythographer (“ invertit citharam, et canere coepit. Inversis autem tibiis, quum se Marsya Apollini aequiparare nequiret,” etc.). That the tree on which Marsyas was hanged was a pine is affirmed by many ancient writers besides Apollodorus. See Nicander, Alex. 301ff., with the Scholiast's note ; Lucian, Tragodopodagra 314ff. ; Archias Mitylenaeus in Anth. Pal. vii.696 ; Philostratus Junior, Im. i.3 ; Longus, Pastor. iv.8 ; Zenobius, Cent. iv.81 ; Tzetzes, Chiliades i.353ff. Pliny alone describes the tree as a plane, which in his time was still shown at Aulocrene on the way from Apamea to Phrygia ( Pliny, Nat. Hist. xvi.240 ). The skin of the flayed Marsyas was exhibited at Celaenae within historical times. See Hdt. 7.26 ; Xen. Ana. 1.2.8 ; Livy xxxviii.13.6 ; Quintus Curtius iii.1.1-5 ; Pliny, Nat. Hist. v.106 .