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Marsyas



Someone recalled Marsyas (a satyr) lost to Leto's son:

The contest when he played Minerva's pipe,
And paid the penalty. 'No! No' he screamed,
Why tear me from myself? Oh, I repent!

Apollo stripped his skin; the whole of him
Was one huge wound, blood streaming everywhere,
Sinews laid bare, veins naked, quivering
And pulsing.

The tears of all the country folk, and Olympus, too

 Their fertile tears fell deep into the veins of Earth where:

"thence a river hurries to the sea
Through falling banks, the river Marsyas,
The freshest, clearest stream of Phrygia."


The Torment of Marsyas-Louvre Museum-Paris

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