Furniture Support Shaped as a Hanging Marsyas

Unknown

A.D. 100–200

Marble with polychromy, Marble, Polychromy

J. Paul Getty Museum

A marble sculpture depicts a muscular male figure with a beard, hands raised behind his head, standing on a dark base. The figure appears to be a satyr or mythological character. In Greek mythology, the satyr Marsyas, a creature part horse, part human, challenged Apollo, the god of music, to a flute contest. Apollo won and punished Marsyas by having him hung from a tree and skinned alive. For the Romans, the story of Marsyas served as an example of the consequences of hubris, or excessive pride, and of foolishly challenging one's betters. Yet even with this harsh message, figures of Marsyas were popular in the eastern part of the Roman Empire, and they were frequently used as table supports. This broken Marsyas comes from just such a table. Traces remain of the paint and gilding that originally elaborated th