#the flaying of marsyas

[stigmatam4rtyr]

The Flaying of Marsyas (between c.1570-1576, oil on canvas) | Titian

[sheltiechicago]

The Flaying Of Marsyas

Artist: Titian | Year (completed): 1576 | Period: Mannerism

Iris Murdoch, a novelist, once proclaimed The Flaying of Marsyas the most outstanding work of art in the history of Western culture. Not much information is known surrounding the painting. To whom the late Titian masterpiece was intended, whether it was finished (although it is signed), and whether it was changed after the artist's passing are all unknown. It illustrates Ovid's tragic narrative of the satyr Marsyas, who lost a duel with the deity Apollo in a contest and was sentenced to a horrible demise. The artwork is crammed with a large cast of creatures and people, some taking part in the horrifying, nauseating rite of painstakingly removing flesh from Marsyas’ bones while others are just contemplating. The painting appears incomplete or possibly abandoned when viewed up close, as it's incredibly messy and agitated. There's pain, passion, and brutality everywhere.

[pmamtraveller]

THE FLAYING OF MARSYAS (1570-76) by TITIAN (TIZIANO VERCELLI)

This painting portrays a narrative from GREEK mythology in which a satyr, MARSYAS, contests the god Apollo in a musical competition, asserting that his music is superior to the god's. The aulos (a double flute) is played by MARSYAS, while APOLLO plays the lyre.

MARSYAS turned out to be a worthy adversary and he was victorious in the first round. However, in the second round, APOLLO inverted his lyre and played the same melody, which MARSYAS could not do with his aulos, and he was defeated.

The result is that MARSYAS is flayed by APOLLO, and TITIAN portrays MARSYAS hanging upside down from a tree, although the artist has altered the narrative slightly.

In the tree, the aulos is replaced by a pan flute, the female figure is positioned behind the kneeling APOLLO, the lyre is replaced by a LIRA DA BRACCIO, and the judge is replaced by the king of PHRYGIA, MIDAS, (the seated figure on the right, wearing a crown).

The inclusion of King MIDAS in the painting is likely a misinterpretation of a similar narrative of a musical competition between the two figures of PAN and APOLLO, wherein MIDAS serves as a judge. This is one of the most recent works of art created by TITIAN and is believed to be incomplete.

MARSYAS represents the pure DIONYSIAN aspect of art, which must be tamed by the blending of the APOLLONIAN aspect with it. From that union, TITIAN seems to be saying, true art, true wisdom, will come.

So that what at first appears to be a portrayal of a particularly cruel act of torture becomes, instead, a metaphor of transformation, and of ultimate harmony.

[tomscryingcorner]

make him repent.

[meghavahana]

[dialmforolrik]

The Flaying of Marsyas (Titian, 1576)

[tylermileslockett]

Hey folks, this image of Apollo was done for a private commission. Xoxo

The following text is reposted from my previous Apollo Olympians image.

“Phoebus, of you even the swan sings with clear voice to the beating of his wings, as he alights upon the bank by the eddying river Peneus; and of you the sweet-tongued minstrel, holding his high-pitched lyre, always sings both first and last…And so hail to you, lord! I seek your favor with my song.”  (-Homeric Hymn, translated by H.G. Evelyn white)

APOLLO (uh-PAH-low), God of prophecy, oracles, music, art, protector of and disease of boys and men, and archery. Just as his twin sister Artemis is patron to women and girls, Apollo is both protector, and killer from disease of boys and men. In my Illustration the god holds his bow and arrows behind, while he strums the lyre gifted to him by trickster Hermes. Near the sun flies his ally and divine messenger, a white raven. The column on the right is capped with a cow, representing his sacred animal as a god of herds. The serpent Python sits dead at his feet, killed by Apollo’s arrow so that the god could take over the Delphi temple location. The temple complex sits beneath the god, while on the far right, the Pythia (Apollo’s oracle priestess) sits upon a tripod, breathing the hallucinatory gasses seeping up from the earth to get her prophecies which she bestows upon visitors.

The laurel tree has associations with Apollo because the god, chasing a Naiad (water nymph) named Daphne call out to Gaia (mother earth) for help, who transformed the nymph into a laurel tree, which the god adopted as his sacred tree. In book 1 of the Iliad, Apollo supports the Trojans by raining down a plague on the Greeks, and later helping Paris to kill Achilles. Apollo’s cruelty is shown in Ovid’s mythical lyre contest with the inventor of the flute; a satyr named Marsyas. When Apollo suggested they play their instruments upside down, the satyr lost, and was flayed (skinned) alive as punishment for his hubris. 

[moonagedaydreamsofrhiannon]

Yellowjackets as famous artworks

Misty and Crystal as “Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan” by Ilya Repin:

Shauna and Jackie as “Saturn Devouring His Son” by Francisco Goya:

Lottie as “The Wounded Deer” by Frida Kahlo:

Doomcoming as “Fire Dance” by Joseph Tomanek:

Javi as “The Sacrifice of Isaac” by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio:

Laura Lee as “Joan of Arc” by John Everett Millais:

Coach Ben as “The Desperate Man” by Gustave Courbet:

Natalie and her dad as “Judith Beheading Holofernes” by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio:

The Jackie feast as “The Golden Apple of Discord” by Jacob Jordaens:

Shauna’s marriage as “The Reluctant Bride” by Auguste Toulmouche:

The team during the winter as “The Potato Eaters” by Vincent Van Gogh:

Travis during Doomcoming as “The Flaying of Marsyas” by Titian:

The card drawing as “The Execution of Lady Jane Grey” by Paul Delaroche:

Coach Ben witnessing the Jackie feast as “The Scream” by Edvard Munch:

Travis and Javi as “Anguish” by August Friedrich Schenck:

Tai and Van on the expedition as “The Dead Miner” by Charles Christian Nahl:

Shauna as “The Lunatic of Étretat” by Hugues Merle:

The final few survivors as “Cannibals” by Odd Nerdrum:

Natalie as “Death and the Soldier” by Hans Larwin:

The team and the Wilderness as “Self-Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle” by Arnold Böcklin:

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

Some recent discussions I’ve seen about EPIC: The Musical, The Trials of Apollo, and Greek Mythology itself have prompted me to make this post.

With me, at least, when I’m talking about one of the Greek gods, I’m talking about them as they are portrayed in a specific thing.

It’s the same in my fanfics— I would not portray mythology Apollo the way I do ToA Apollo, and vice versa.

A good example of this I think would be my Marsyas fic. In it, I do not have Apollo flay him, because that makes more sense in the rrverse world. If I was going purely on the myths though? I would have had him go through with it. And have a crisis about it. Because that’s what happens.

I just wanted to put it out there that there are people capable of keeping different depictions of the gods separate from the myths. I felt the need to come out and say this, because I don’t want people thinking that my favorite media’s fandom (ToA) ignores/misportrays the myths. We are very aware of what is ToA and what is myth, and I want to set that straight.

Plus, I think it’s worth mentioning that some people in the ToA fandom connect so deeply with it because of the themes of change and the cycle of abuse. And for that to work, the gods have to be more dysfunctional than they are in the myths. It wouldn’t hit as hard if they weren’t.

idk. I just feel like there’s some layer of…hm, instinctual dislike towards fandoms of medias with Greek myth inspiration, because of certain inaccuracies and how that consequently reflects on the myths.

And I didn’t really like seeing that directed at ToA’s fandom, where we have fun discussing the differences between the rrverse and mythology and do in fact keep them separate. I’d argue the ToA fandom’s the most informed on the Greek myths in the wider rrverse fandom because we’re actually interested in the gods. Many have read the myths, or are reading them, like myself! We are educating ourselves on the mythology! And when we find something that has an interesting vision because of ToA’s context? We incorporate it into the setting of the rrverse. But we do not treat that vision as mythology canon.

A very good example of this is Zeus and Apollo’s relationship in ToA. It’s a stark contrast to the myths. I get why people wouldn’t be a fan of that. I like learning about their mythological relationship myself! I love the Greek myth soap opera. I love the Greek gods. I don’t know why someone would be into the mythology without liking the gods.

But I also feel like there needs to be an understanding that how the gods are portrayed in fictional stories are not always intended to be accurate. There are creators out there who treat their retellings as gospel truth, and that is definitely annoying, but there are others who just want to tell a story— and that’s what ToA is. A story. It’s essentially an AU of Greek mythology where Zeus succumbs to paranoia about the cycle. That’s how I see it.

It’s not accurate to the myths, because it’s not meant to be— it’s meant to tell a story, not retell one.

I’m beating a dead horse here because I’ve talked about this specific thing before. But yeah.

Just something I wanted to clear up with the mythology side of tumblr.

[theoi-of-olympus]

Never take a Hellenic polytheist to a museum, they’ll spend all their time staring at the Greek statues…

So here are some pictures I took at the V&A today!

Temple of Bacchus, I was staring at this for a good 5 minutes

The 3 graces, they didn’t have the large one but I still loved seeing these (I actually got a pin and postcard of the usual statue that I love)

The sitting Venus, love love love it I wanted to just sit in front of it for hours

Eros and Psyche

Psyche by herself

Diana, missing her bow sadly

Zephyr and Flora, for the few Zephyr worshippers I see here

Apollo flaying Marsyas

Thetis dipping Achilles in the river Styx

The best photo I took today, it had depictions of Apollon, Zeus and some other gods around the room and was lovely

[liesmyth]

Statue of Marsyas, Roman copy of Greek original sculpture. First century BCE. Capitoline Museums

The monumental statue represents the silen Marsyas hanging on a tree, waiting to be flayed upon order by Apollo. The white-and-red Pavonazzo marble was likely used to emphasize the effect of the flaying.

[jacob-jordaens-paintings]

-Marsyas Flayed by Apollo-

[my-name-is-apollo]

Does Apollo wear sun crown in mythology? I'm thinking to give him a crown like that in my design but idk if that is correct or not I wanna make sure.

Anon, first of all I want to say that if you really wish to give Apollo a sun crown in your design, you should just go ahead and do it. I mean, a lot of Hermes fandesigns I've seen lately have his entire face covered in wings lol. So like, go wild. It's your art, draw what makes you happy.

To answer your question, I haven't ever read of Apollo wearing any such sun crown in the classical literature. But, we do have a few depictions of Apollo with a radiate head.

King Antiochus l shakes hand with Apollo. The deity is wearing a laurel wreath and holding a laurel sprig - attributes exclusive to Apollo, so we know it's not Helios/Sol (at least not entirely)

From a Roman fresco picturing a beauty contest between Venus and Hesperus, with Apollo as the judge.

A fragment of kithara. On the left, a Scythian is preparing his knife to flay Marsyas. On the right, Marsyas' toes are visible. Given that this is a kithara and that the events from Marsyas' story is depicted, the central figure is most probably Apollo-Helios.

A coin depicting Apollo Lairbenos from Hierapolis

A coin depicting Apollo Archegetes from Hierapolis

You can actually find more coins of Apollo Lairbenos with a radiate head. Such depictions of Apollo are quite rare, as you can see, and it was clearly a result of his syncretism with Helios. So if you're aiming for mythical accuracy in your design, I'd say you wouldn't be wrong to draw Apollo with a sun crown/radiate head, although you would be going with a very uncommon depiction.

[90scakeboy]

Apollo flaying Marsyas. 1557-102. Annibale Carracci. Italian. 1560-1609. fresco. Farnese Gallery. Rome.

[anotheroceanid]

Knowing Apollo's history with Satyrs i'll just add that he probably flayed one because he wrongfully bragged abt bedding Perse (since she's a goddess known for being incredibly beautiful who doesn't smite people all that much)

Apollo about to make Marsyas story sound like a fairytale

[apollomes-supremacy]

Hello Gress can you please tell me the name and creator the splendid oil painting of Phoebus Apollo and Mercury that you have displayed on your Tumblr? I really like the painting and wanted to ask who's the painter because I like the old art of Apollo.. Thank you if can help me with this😃...

Hello! 🦢

I believe youre refering to the painting on my header: Apollo or The Three Protector of The Muses by Charles-André van Loo (Carle Van Loo), 1745.

(I previously thought it had another name, but apparently I was wrong lol)

This artist also has some other mythological works that I really like!

Marsyas Flayed by the Order of Apollo, 1975.

Juno, 1736.

Perseus and Andromeda, c.1735 - c.1740.

Venus and Cupids with the Arms of Mars, 1743.

Education of Cupid, c. 1750.

Jason and Medea, 1759.

Mercury and Argos, 18th century.

Baccus et Ariane, 18th century.