Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Athena invented the aulos—the double reed-pipe—and first played it among the gods. Seeing her reflection in water (a spring or river), she watched her cheeks puff and her face distort with the effort of blowing. Ashamed that the instrument marred the dignity of her features—or, in some tellings, mocked by other gods for the grimace—she cast the pipes away and laid a curse on whoever should take them up. Marsyas the Phrygian satyr (or silenus) found the discarded aulos, learned its art, and grew so proud that he challenged Apollo—the contest and flaying that follow are told in the Marsyas entry. The present myth explains why Athena, goddess of craft and measured skill, is not the patron of pipe music: she created the tool, then repudiated it as unbecoming, leaving the wild reed to satyrs and to the dangerous contest with the lyre. The aetiology also underwrites Athenian (and wider Greek) ambivalence toward the aulos—useful in cult and war, yet associated with loss of composure—against Apolline string music.