batch.motif.roman-ovid-metamorphoses-books-1-7-riley-gutenberg-l9996-l10069
---
record_id: batch.motif.roman-ovid-metamorphoses-books-1-7-riley-gutenberg-l9996-l10069
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/roman/project-gutenberg/metamorphoses-books-1-7-riley.md
passage_locator:
label: BOOK THE SIXTH. / EXPLANATION. / EXPLANATION. / EXPLANATION.; lines 9996-10069
start: '9996'
end: '10069'
translation: The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: ''
summary: The passage explains a prior story as possibly a satire or an origin story
for frogs, then recounts Marsyas challenging Apollo on the flute, being defeated
and flayed alive, and the tears of his mourners becoming the river Marsyas. It
also notes Pelops mourning Niobe and revealing an ivory shoulder inserted after
the gods reassembled his dismembered body.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: The explanation says the preceding story may have been based on a tradition
about Latona’s cruel treatment by country clowns, may have been satire on peasant
manners, or may explain the origin of frogs.
category: other
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: Marsyas challenged Apollo to a trial of skill on the flute and was overcome.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: Apollo punished Marsyas by flaying him alive.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: obs:4
text: Marsyas cries out in regret and says the flute was not worth such punishment.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:5
text: The passage describes Marsyas’s exposed body after his skin is stripped off.
category: attribute
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:6
text: Country inhabitants, Fauns, Satyrs, Olympus, Nymphs, and mountain herdsmen
lament Marsyas.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:7
text: The earth receives the falling tears, turns them into a stream, and sends
them forth as the river Marsyas in Phrygia.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:8
text: Pelops mourns for Niobe and reveals ivory on his left shoulder.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:9
text: Pelops’s shoulder was originally flesh-colored, but after his father cut his
limbs apart, the gods rejoined the limbs and inserted ivory where the shoulder
part was missing.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:10
text: A footnote says Apollo was said to have fastened Marsyas to a pine-tree or
plane-tree, and that Marsyas’s skin was later suspended in Celenæ.
category: other
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: obs:11
text: A footnote says Herodotus tells the story of Marsyas under the name Silenus,
and Hyginus says Apollo hewed Marsyas to pieces.
category: other
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- ev:11
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Marsyas
description: A Satyr who challenged Apollo on the flute, was defeated, flayed, mourned,
and gave his name to a river formed from tears.
role_refs:
- role:1
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:6
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Apollo / son of Latona
description: The god who overcame Marsyas in flute-playing and punished him.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: Fauns, Satyrs, Olympus, Nymphs, and other mourners
description: Country and woodland beings, including Marsyas’s brothers and mountain
herdsmen, who lament Marsyas.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: Fruitful earth
description: The earth receives the tears shed for Marsyas, drinks them in, turns
them into a stream, and sends it forth.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: Pelops
description: Niobe’s brother, said to mourn her and to have an ivory left shoulder
inserted after his dismembered limbs were rejoined.
role_refs:
- role:6
- role:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: The gods
description: They rejoined Pelops’s dismembered limbs and inserted ivory where a
shoulder part was missing.
role_refs:
- role:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: Pelops’s father
description: The figure whose hands cut Pelops’s limbs asunder, according to the
passage.
role_refs:
- role:9
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: fig:8
name_or_label: Latona
description: Mentioned in the explanation as having possibly suffered cruel treatment
from country clowns in a prior story; also identified as Apollo’s mother by the
phrase son of Latona.
role_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
roles:
- id: role:1
label: Defeated challenger
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: Marsyas challenged Apollo in flute-playing and was overcome.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: role:2
label: Punished victim
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: Marsyas is flayed after his defeat and speaks in regret during the punishment.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: role:3
label: Victorious divine punisher
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: Apollo defeats Marsyas and punishes him by flaying.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: role:4
label: Mourners
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: The listed country and woodland figures lament Marsyas.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: role:5
label: Transformer of tears into river
assigned_to:
- fig:4
basis: The earth receives tears, turns them into a stream, and sends forth the river
Marsyas.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: role:6
label: Mourning kinsman
assigned_to:
- fig:5
basis: Pelops alone is said to mourn for Niobe as well.
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: role:7
label: Reassembled body with ivory replacement
assigned_to:
- fig:5
basis: Pelops’s limbs were rejoined and ivory was inserted in place of the missing
shoulder part.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: role:8
label: Restorers of dismembered body
assigned_to:
- fig:6
basis: The gods are said to have joined Pelops’s limbs after they were cut apart.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: role:9
label: Dismembering father
assigned_to:
- fig:7
basis: Pelops’s limbs are said to have been cut asunder by his father’s hands.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: Flute
literal_form: Tritonian reed / flute
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: sym:2
label: Flayed skin
literal_form: Marsyas’s skin stripped from his limbs
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- ev:9
- id: sym:3
label: Tears becoming watercourse
literal_form: Tears received by earth and turned into a stream and river
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:3
- fig:4
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: sym:4
label: River Marsyas
literal_form: A river in Phrygia bearing Marsyas’s name
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:4
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: sym:5
label: Ivory shoulder
literal_form: Ivory inserted in Pelops’s left shoulder in place of a missing bodily
part
associated_figures:
- fig:5
- fig:6
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
- id: sym:6
label: Pine-tree or plane-tree
literal_form: Tree to which Apollo was said to have fastened Marsyas in a footnote
variant
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs:
- tree
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Marsyas defeated and flayed
summary: Marsyas challenges Apollo on the flute, loses, protests that the flute
was not worth the cost, and is flayed alive.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: scene:2
label: Mourning tears become the river Marsyas
summary: Woodland and country figures mourn Marsyas; the earth receives their tears
and turns them into a stream that becomes the river Marsyas in Phrygia.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:3
- fig:4
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- id: scene:3
label: Pelops reveals his ivory shoulder
summary: Pelops mourns for Niobe, draws aside his clothing, and reveals an ivory
left shoulder inserted after the gods restored his dismembered body.
figure_refs:
- fig:5
- fig:6
- fig:7
symbol_refs:
- sym:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
- id: scene:4
label: Explanatory note on prior frog origin story
summary: The explanation offers possible origins for a previous Latona story, including
satire on peasants and an aetiology for frogs.
figure_refs:
- fig:8
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: Divine punishment for presumptuous musical challenge
taxonomy_refs:
- divine_judgment
basis: A satyr challenges Apollo in flute-playing, is defeated, and receives severe
divine punishment.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage frames the punishment as for presumption in the fable heading,
but does not elaborate a general moral beyond the action.
- id: motif:2
label: Tears transformed into named river
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The mourners’ tears are received by the earth, transformed into a stream,
and identified as the river Marsyas.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
confidence: high
cautions: No available taxonomy family directly names river aetiology; water is
recorded at symbol level.
- id: motif:3
label: Dismembered body restored with non-flesh replacement
taxonomy_refs:
- resurrection
- death_rebirth
basis: Pelops’s limbs, cut apart by his father, are rejoined by the gods, with ivory
inserted for the missing shoulder part so that he is made entire.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage describes bodily restoration but does not explicitly narrate
Pelops’s death or return to life in this excerpt.
- id: motif:4
label: Poetic explanation for animal origin
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The explanation says a prior story may have been framed to account poetically
for the origin of frogs.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
confidence: medium
cautions: This motif refers to the explanatory note for the preceding story rather
than the Marsyas fable itself.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: The footnote reports that Herodotus tells the Marsyas story under the name
Silenus, indicating a related version of the same story-pattern in another ancient
source.
claim_level: same_motif
target: Herodotus version of the Marsyas/Silenus story
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: The passage gives only a brief footnote notice and does not quote or
summarize Herodotus’s version in detail.
- id: claim:2
claim: The footnote reports a Hyginus variant in which Apollo hews Marsyas to pieces,
showing a related punitive dismemberment variant of the Marsyas episode.
claim_level: same_motif
target: Hyginus version of Apollo and Marsyas
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: The passage provides only the variant detail and does not supply a
full parallel narrative.
- id: claim:3
claim: The footnote’s pine-tree or plane-tree attachment is visually similar to
the main episode’s flaying of Marsyas, adding a tree-bound variant image to the
same punishment scene.
claim_level: visual_similarity
target: Tree-bound flaying image of Marsyas
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:9
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: The comparison is confined to the footnote’s variant object and the
main scene’s punishment; no broader historical claim is made.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: 9996-1003
quote_or_summary: The explanation says the Latona story may come from a tradition
about cruel treatment by country clowns, from satire on peasantry, or from a poetic
account of the origin of frogs.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/roman/project-gutenberg/metamorphoses-books-1-7-riley.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: 1005-1014
quote_or_summary: The fable heading and opening narration state that the Satyr Marsyas
challenged Apollo on the flute, was overcome, and was punished by the son of Latona.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/roman/project-gutenberg/metamorphoses-books-1-7-riley.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:3
type: quote
locator: 1014-1018
quote_or_summary: "“the flute is not of so much value!” As he shrieked aloud, his
skin was stript off from the surface of his limbs"
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/roman/project-gutenberg/metamorphoses-books-1-7-riley.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quotation.
- id: ev:4
type: summary
locator: 1018-1023
quote_or_summary: Marsyas is described as one entire wound, with blood flowing,
exposed nerves, throbbing veins, and visible internal organs.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/roman/project-gutenberg/metamorphoses-books-1-7-riley.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: 1023-1028
quote_or_summary: Country inhabitants, Fauns, woodland deities, Marsyas’s Satyr
brothers, Olympus, Nymphs, and mountain herdsmen lament him.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/roman/project-gutenberg/metamorphoses-books-1-7-riley.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:6
type: summary
locator: 1029-1034
quote_or_summary: The fruitful earth receives the falling tears, turns them into
a stream, and sends them forth as the clear Phrygian river named Marsyas.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/roman/project-gutenberg/metamorphoses-books-1-7-riley.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:7
type: summary
locator: 1035-1040
quote_or_summary: After the people return to present events and mourn Amphion’s
line, Pelops alone is said to mourn for Niobe and reveals ivory on his left shoulder.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/roman/project-gutenberg/metamorphoses-books-1-7-riley.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:8
type: summary
locator: 1040-1048
quote_or_summary: Pelops’s shoulder had once been flesh; the gods later rejoined
the limbs cut apart by his father, found one shoulder part missing, inserted ivory,
and made him entire.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/roman/project-gutenberg/metamorphoses-books-1-7-riley.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:9
type: summary
locator: 1054-1062
quote_or_summary: A footnote says Apollo fastened Marsyas to a pine-tree or, according
to Pliny, a plane-tree, and that the skin was later suspended in Celenæ.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/roman/project-gutenberg/metamorphoses-books-1-7-riley.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:10
type: summary
locator: 1050-1053
quote_or_summary: A footnote says Herodotus tells the story of Marsyas under the
name Silenus and that Fulgentius describes Marsyas in paintings with a pig’s tail.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/roman/project-gutenberg/metamorphoses-books-1-7-riley.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:11
type: summary
locator: 1062-1067
quote_or_summary: A footnote says Hyginus reports that Apollo hewed Marsyas to pieces,
and comments on the graphic description of the flaying.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/roman/project-gutenberg/metamorphoses-books-1-7-riley.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: medium
notes: The Marsyas and Pelops episodes are explicit in the supplied passage. Motif
taxonomy alignment is partly interpretive, especially for Pelops and for the prior
frog-origin explanation.
reviewer_status:
status: needs_review
reviewer: ''
reviewed_at: ''
notes: Machine-generated draft from OpenAI Batch; not human-reviewed.
extracted_by: openai_batch:gpt-5.5
extracted_at: '2026-04-28'
notes: |-
Line locators follow the supplied range approximately within the passage text. No external sources were used beyond the passage and metadata.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:roman-ovid-metamorphoses-books-1-7-riley-gutenberg__l9996-l10069
passage_sha256=7b393b78251ae45af1cbaee3f71f11cef79285c8b801ac4ab24587ab7670c3ae