Apollo and Marsyas: musical contest or duel? A mythological approach of the symbolic duality between the lýra and the aulós

• Autor(a) principal: Cerqueira, Fábio Vergara
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Classica (Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Clássicos. Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revista.classica.org.br/classica/article/view/77
• topic: Ancient Greece; Greek music; Iconography; Mythology; Apollo; Grécia antiga; Música grega; Iconogra?a; Mitologia; Apolo

We study the mythological treatment of thesymbolic duality between the lýra and the aulós in the ancient Greek music. We analyze the mythological complex that includes the following narratives: a) the invention of the aulós and its later disposal by Athena, b) the adoption of the aulós by the Silenus Marsyas, and c) the musical duel between Apollo and Marsyas, and its consequences. We compare the mythological approach of this complex in the literary and graphic traditions. Concerning the literary tradition, we focus on the following authors: Pindar (Pythian, XII), Melanipides (ap. Athenaeus), Herodotus, Xenophon (Anabasis), Apollodorus (Library) and Ovid (Metamorphoses, Fasti). With respect to the iconographic tradition, we bring mainly the painting of Attic and Apulian vases, as well as the Etruscan vases and mirrors, besides the sculptural groups known by Pliny the Elder and Pausanias. The popularity of this mythological theme, in the literature as in the vase painting, leads us to the philosophical, pedagogic, political and esthetical debate covered by the symbolic dichotomy between aulós and lýra. And furthermore it is an important component of an allegedly hegemonic system of thought, characterized by normative goals concerning culture and social behavior.