ve been based on
historical facts. Having learned from his father, Hyagnis, the art of
playing on the flute, and, proud of his skill, at a time when the
musical art was yet in its infancy, Marsyas may have been rash enough
to challenge either a priest of Apollo, or some prince who bore that
name, and, for his presumption, to have received the punishment
described by Ovid. Herodotus certainly credited the story; for he says
that the skin of the unfortunate musician was to be seen, in his time,
in the town of Celenae. Strabo, Pausanias, and Aulus Gellius also
believe its truth. Suidas tells us, that Marsyas, mortified at his
defeat, threw himself into the river that runs near Celenae, which,
from that time, bore his name. Strabo says, that Marsyas had stolen
the flute from Minerva, which proved so fatal to him, and had thereby
drawn upon himself the indignation of that Divinity. Ovid, in the
Sixth Book of the Fasti, and Pausanias, quoting from Apollodorus, tell
us, that Minerva, having observed, by seeing herself in the river
Meander, that, when she played on the flute, her cheeks were swelled
out in an unseemly manner, threw aside the flute in her disgust, and
Marsyas finding it, learned to play on it so skilfully, that he
challenged Apollo to a trial of proficiency. Hyginus, in his 165th
Fable, says that Marsyas was the son of Oeagrius, and not Hyagnis;
perhaps, however, this is a corrupt reading.

FABLE V. [VI.412-586]

Tereus, king of Thrace, having married Progne, the daughter of
Pandion, king of Athens, falls in love with her sister Philomela, whom
he ravishes, and then, having cut out her tongue, he shuts her up in a
strong place in a forest, to prevent a discovery. The unfortunate
Philomela finds means to acquaint her sister with her misfortunes;
for, weaving her story on a piece of cloth, she sends it to Progne by
the hands of one of her keepers.

The neighboring princes met together; and the cities that were near,
entreated their kings to go to console {Pelops, namely}, Argos and
Sparta, and the Pelopean Mycenae, and Calydon,[51] not yet odious to the
stern Diana, and fierce Orchomeneus, and Corinth famous for its
brass,[52] and fertile Messene, and Patrae, and humble Cleonae,[53] and
the Neleian Pylos, and Troezen not yet named from Pittheus;[54] and other
cities which are enclosed by the Isthmus between the two seas, and those
which, situated beyond,