The Torturing of Marsyas at The Louvre, Paris

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In Greek mythology, satyr Marsyas is the central figure in two tales of mortality: he picked up Athena's abandoned double flute and played it, while also challenging Apollo to a musical contest that ended with his hide being taken and life lost. In ancient times, literary sources emphasize Marsyas' hubris and the justice of his punishment. The stories involving Rhea/Cybele place Marsyas in Celaenae (or Kelainai) in Phrygia, now Dinar, Turkey, at the source of the Meander River, also known as Menderes. When genealogical connections were drawn, Marsyas was said to be the son of Olympus, who was either Heracles' and Euboea's son or Thespius' daughter, or Oeagrus', or Hyagnis'. Alternatively, Olympus was Marsyas' pupil. In Apollo's musical contest against Marsyas, the terms stated that the winner could do as they pleased with the loser. Since the Muses judged the contest, Marsyas naturally lost and was flayed alive in a cave near Celaenae for his hubris of challenging a god. Apollo then nailed Marsyas' skin to a pine tree near Lake Aulocrene, also known as Karakuyu Gölü, which is full of reeds used to make pipes, according to Strabo.