icule, and before he began to blow upon his pipes stammered out
in his barbarous jargon some insane boasts about himself and Apollo.
He prided himself on the mane thrown back from his brow, on his
unkempt beard, his shaggy breast, his skill upon the pipes and his
lack of wealth. By contrast--oh the absurdity of it!--he blamed Apollo
for the opposite of these qualities, for being Apollo, for wearing his
hair long, for having a fair face and smooth body, for his skill in so
many arts, and for the opulence of his fortune. 'In the first place,'
he said, 'his hair is smoothed and plastered into tufts and curls that
fall about his brow and hang before his face. His body is fair from
head to foot, his limbs shine bright, his tongue gives oracles, and he
is equally eloquent in prose or verse, propose which you will. What of
his robes so fine in texture, so soft to the touch, aglow with purple?
What of his lyre that flashes gold, gleams white with ivory, and
shimmers with rainbow gems? What of his song, so cunning and so sweet?
Nay, all these allurements suit with naught save luxury. To virtue
they bring shame alone!' And then he proceeded to display his own body
as the model of perfection. The Muses laughed when they heard him
denounce Apollo for possessing gifts such as the wise would pray to
possess, and when this boastful piper had been defeated in the contest
and had been skinned as though he were a two-footed bear, they left
him with his entrails torn and exposed to the air. Thus did Marsyas
sing for his own undoing, and such was his fall. As for Apollo he was
ashamed of so inglorious a victory.

_The piper Antigenidas._

4. There was a certain piper named Antigenidas, whose every note made
honeyed harmony. He had skill, too, to make music in every mode,
choose which you would, the simple Aeolian or the complex Ionian, the
mournful Lydian, the solemn Phrygian, or the warlike Dorian. Being
therefore the most famous of all that played upon the pipe, he said
that nothing so tormented him, nothing so vexed his heart and soul, as
the fact that the musicians who played the trumpet at funerals were
dignified by the name of pipers. But he would have endured this
identity of names with equanimity, had he ever seen the performance of
mimes; for he would have noted that the magistrates, who preside in
the theatre, and the characters on the stage, who come in for a good
cudgelling, are clad in practically the same purple garments.