Wikipedia
In Greek mythology, the satyr ' Marsyas' (; ) is a central figure in two stories involving death: in one, he picked up the double flute ( aulos) that had been abandoned by Athena and played it; in the other, he challenged Apollo to a contest of music and lost his hide and life. In antiquity, literary sources often emphasise the hubris of Marsyas and the justice of his punishment.
In one conjunction Rhea/ Cybele, and his episodes are situated by the mythographers in Celaenae (or Kelainai) in Phrygia (today, the town of Dinar in Turkey), at the main source of the Meander (the river Menderes).
When a genealogy was applied to him, Marsyas was the son of Olympus (son of Heracles and Euboea, daughter of Thespius), or of Oeagrus, or of Hyagnis. Olympus was, alternatively, said to be Marsyas' son or pupil.
Marsyas may refer to:
- Marsyas, a satyr who had a music contest with Apollo
- Marsyas (horse), a French Thoroughbred racehorse
- Marsyas (genus), a genus of beetles in the Carabidae family
- Marsyas (sculpture), a sculpture
Marsyas (also known as Marsyas II, 1940–30 May 1964) was a French Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He was the dominant stayer in France in the mid-1940s winning four consecutive editions of the 4,000 metre Prix du Cadran between 1944 and 1947. He proved equally successful when campaigned in Britain in 1946. After winning seventeen of his twenty-seven races, he was retired to stud where he had limited success as a sire of winners.
Marsyas is a 150 meter-long, ten storey high sculpture designed by Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond. It was on show at Tate Modern gallery, London in 2003 and was commissioned as part of the Unilever Series. Marsyas is the third in a series of commissions for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall and the first to make use of the entire space.
Anish Kapoor is renowned for his sculptural forms that permeate physical and psychological space. Cecil Balmond is a designer, artist, architect, engineer, and writer. He is also the recipient of the RIBA Charles Jencks Award for Theory in Practice.
Marsyas consists of three steel rings joined together by a single span of specially-designed red PVC membrane. The two rings are positioned vertically, at each end of the space, while a third is suspended parallel with the bridge. Wedged into place, the geometry generated by these three rigid steel structures determines the sculpture’s overall form, a shiftform vertical to horizontal and back to vertical again. Using digital form-finding techniques that simulate the forces found in biological forms – i.e. surface tension, uniform and hydrostatic pressure, the design was inspired by multiple parallel and diverging concepts and processes.
The sculpture's title refers to Marsyas, the satyr in Greek mythology, who was flayed alive by the god Apollo.
The Guardian called it “the biggest sculpture at Tate Modern and probably the biggest in any art gallery in the world.”
Kapoor and Balmond have collaborated on other art projects. They jointly designed Temenos, ‘a gently twisted tube on a vast butterfly net’ which appeared in June, located in the UK’s Teesside. It is the first of five giant sculpture which will form in the biggest public art work in the world.
Balmond and Kapoor have also designed ArcelorMittal Orbit which will open for the Olympics 2012.
In 2003, the composition Lamentate (Homage to Anish Kapoor and his sculpture "Marsyas") for piano and orchestra by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt was premiered in the Tate Modern Turbine Hall.
Marsyas is a genus of beetles in the family Carabidae, containing the following species:
- Marsyas bahiae Tschitscherine, 1900
- Marsyas bicolor Straneo, 1968
- Marsyas cyanopterus (Tschitscherine, 1897)
- Marsyas darlingtoni Straneo, 1985
- Marsyas elegans (Perty, 1830)
- Marsyas franzi Straneo, 1985
- Marsyas humeralis Straneo, 1968
- Marsyas inaequalis Straneo, 1968
- Marsyas insignis (Brulle, 1843)
- Marsyas intermedius Straneo, 1968
- Marsyas lampronotus Tschitscherine, 1901
- Marsyas latemarginatus Straneo, 1968
- Marsyas minutus Straneo, 1951
- Marsyas obliquecollis (Motschulsky, 1866)
- Marsyas olivaceus Straneo, 1968
- Marsyas parallelus (Perty, 1830)
- Marsyas proximus Straneo, 1953
- Marsyas subaeneus Straneo, 1968
- Marsyas viridiaeneus Chaudoir, 1874