Listening to my augury 🔮

Today's sculpture story is about Marsyas: In the contest between Apollo and Marsyas, the terms stated that the winner could treat the defeated party any way he wanted. Since the contest was judged by the Muses,Marsyas naturally lost and was flayed alive in a cave near Celaenae for his hubris to challenge a god. Apollo then nailed Marsyas' skin to a pine tree. There are alternative sources of this story which state that it wasn't actually Marsyas who challenged Apollo but Apollo who challenged Marsyas because of his jealousy of the satyr's ability to play the flute. Therefore, hubris would not necessarily be a theme in this tale; rather the capricious weakness of the gods and their equally weak nature in comparison to humans. Among the Romans, Marsyas was cast as the inventor of augury and a proponent of free speech and "speaking truth to power." The earliest known representation of Marsyas at Rome stood for at least 300 years in the Roman Forum near or in the comitium, the space for political activity. He was depicted as a silen, carrying a wineskin on his left shoulder and raising his right arm. The statue was regarded as an indicium libertatis, a symbol of liberty, and was associated with demonstrations of the plebs, or common people. #travel #travelgram #traveling #travelingram #travelstagram #instatravel #tripgram #tripstagram #trip #holiday #photooftheday #sculpture #artgallery #greekmythology #igtravel #rome #italy #italia #italy🇮🇹 #Europe #roma #art #summerineurope #bonboyage #buonviaggio #旅行 #旅行記 #gallery #museum #ig_italia