in fabulous history, a celebrated musician of Celene in Phrygia, son of Olympus, or of Hyagnis, or Ocegrus. He was so skilful in playing on the flute, that he is generally deemed the inventor of it. According to the opinion of some, he found it when Minerva had thrown it aside on account of the distortion of her face when she played upon it. Marsyas was enamoured of Cybele, and he travelled with her as far as Nysa, where he had the imprudence to challenge Apollo to a trial of his skill as a musician. The god accepted the challenge, and it was mutually agreed that he who was defeated should be flayed alive by the conqueror. The Muses, or (according to Diodorus) the inhabitants of Nysa, were appointed umpires. Each exerted his utmost skill, and the victory, with much difficulty, was adjudged to Apollo. The god upon this tied his antagonist to a tree, and flayed him alive: (See APOLLO.) The death of Marsyas was universally lamented; the Fauns, Satyrs, and Dryads, wept at his fate; and from their abundant tears arose a river of Phrygia, well known by the name of Marfyas. The unfortunate Marfyas is often represented on monuments, as tied with his hands behind his back to a tree, while Apollo stands before him with his lyre in his hands. In independent cities, among the ancients, the statue of Marfyas was generally erected in the forum, to represent the intimacy which subsisted between Bacchus and Marfyas as the emblems of liberty. At Celene, the skin of Marfyas was shown to travellers for some time. It was suspended in the public place, in the form of a bladder or a foot ball.

The sources of the Marfyas were near those of the Maeander, and these two rivers had their confluence a little below the town of Celene.