Apollo bowed and smiled sweetly. But what he did next might make you forever think less of this golden and beautiful god, the melodious Apollo of reason, charm, and harmony. He took Marsyas and flayed the skin off him. There is no nice way of saying it. To punish Marsyas for his hubris in daring to challenge an Olympian, he peeled the skin from the living body of the screaming satyr and hung it on a pine tree as a lesson and warning to all.162 The “Flaying of Marsyas” became a favorite subject for painters, poets, and sculptors. For some his tale echoes the fate of Prometheus: a symbol of the
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