Satyr with aulos

We are looking at a fragment of a kylix with black figures, that is a wine cup from ancient Greece, used during banquets, which was distinguished by its peculiar shape, with a low, expanded bowl, and decorated inside and out with mythological or everyday life scenes, painted with black paint on a red background. This find probably dates back to the last two decades of the 6th century BC. It was found in a domestic room in Building 1 of Lot 14, in the late Archaic Etruscan settlement of Gonfienti.
The exterior of the fragment exhibited here is entirely painted. Inside, in the central round piece, which has been conserved, is part of a satyr in profile, facing to the right, probably playing the double flute (in Greek, aulos). His hair, which is free-flowing, falls over the shoulders to below his shoulder blades. His beard, which is also very long, entirely covers his upper chest. From an iconographic point of view, the focus of the narrative is on the Satyr's cheeks, puffed out in the act of playing and rendered with a series of lines radiating out from the lips.
The scene evokes the myth of the invention of the double flute (aulos) by Athena, from which the tragic story of the Phrygian satyr Marsyas begins. Indeed, after trying to play the instrument, the goddess, seeing herself reflected in a pool of water, realised that the effort required to produce the sound distorted her facial features, so she threw it away. The double flute was picked up by Marsyas, who learned to play it so well that he boasted he could play it better than Apollo. In fact, he dared to challenge the deity in a musical contest in which Apollo was declared the winner by the Muses because he could sing while playing the zither, something that could not be done with the aulos. The god then decided to punish the satyr for his pride and, after tying him to a tree, flayed him alive.
The outcome of the dispute highlights its symbolic meaning, namely the contrast between wind and string instruments. The latter were considered superior, because with the aulos, the educational value of singing was diminished and, furthermore, it aroused passions in the soul instead of appeasing them. For this reason, it was considered the instrument of trance, often associated with cults of oriental origin, in particular that of Dionysus and his decomposed and orgiastic processions.
In fact, in classical-era Greece, wind instruments such as the aulos, which, in order to be played, distorted the musicians' faces and attitudes, were banned from musical contests and competitions, because they contrasted with the composure of sound produced by stringed instruments, such as the zither of Apollo, the deity who embodies and spreads order, urbanity and harmony.