Satyrs

Satyrs are wild male followers of the god Dionysus in Greek mythology, woodland beings who dance, drink and chase nymphs and who are shown with animal features; the one ancient description of their bodies gives them tails like a horse’s (Pausanias 1.23.6). Their elders are called Sileni, and the best known of them is Silenus. Satyrs appear in the myths of Dionysus and in satyr plays, the comic dramas staged beside tragedy (Pausanias 1.23.5; Euripides, Cyclops).

Characteristics of Satyrs

Origin

Their origin is told in a fragment of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, where the daughters of Hecaterus gave birth to the mountain nymphs, the Curetes, and “the worthless and idle race of satyrs” (Hesiod, fragment quoted by Strabo 10.3.19). The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite also says that the long-lived mountain nymphs lie in love with the Sileni and with Hermes in the depths of lovely caves (Hymn to Aphrodite 5.262–263).

Physical Appearance

Ancient authors describe the satyrs differently. Pausanias, wishing to learn who the Satyrs were, reports the story of Euphemus the Carian about the islands called Satyrides, whose red-haired inhabitants had tails on their flanks not much smaller than those of horses (Pausanias 1.23.5–6). The goat-footed, two-horned god in the Homeric Hymn to Pan is Pan himself, not a satyr (Hymn to Pan 19.1–2).

Behavior and Traits

Satyrs are dancers, drinkers and musicians. Diodorus records that Dionysus took Satyrs about with him as companions, who gave him great delight with their dances and their goat-songs (Diodorus 4.5.3). In Euripides’ Cyclops the chorus of satyrs is led by their father Silenus, who is fond of wine but who also says that he once stood at Dionysus’ side in the battle against the Giants (Euripides, Cyclops 5–8).

Satyrs in Mythology

Companions of Dionysus

In myth, satyrs are part of the retinue of Dionysus, sharing his processions with the Maenads (Diodorus 4.5.3; Nonnus, Dionysiaca 13). In Nonnus’ epic they march with Dionysus as horned warriors in his army. In Euripides’ Cyclops they have lost the god: Silenus says that he and his sons sailed in search of Dionysus until a wind drove them to Etna (Cyclops 13–20), where they work as slaves of the one-eyed Cyclops. Odysseus lands there and finds the company of Satyrs by the cave (Cyclops 76–81, 99–100).

Silenus and the Sileni

Pausanias says that the oldest of the Satyrs are called Sileni (Pausanias 1.23.5). Silenus himself is the best known: at Elis he had a temple of his own, not shared with Dionysus, and Pausanias concludes that the Sileni are a mortal race, since their graves are shown in the land of the Hebrews and at Pergamus (Pausanias 6.24.8). Herodotus passes on the Macedonian story that Silenus was captured in the garden of King Midas, where roses grow of themselves, and Pausanias adds that Midas was said to have captured him by mixing wine with the water of a spring (Herodotus 8.138; Pausanias 1.4.5).

Marsyas

Marsyas, called a Silenus by Herodotus and Pausanias, found the pipes that Athena had thrown away and challenged Apollo. In Apollodorus’ account Apollo won, hung Marsyas in a pine tree and flayed him (Library 1.4.2). Herodotus says that the skin of Marsyas the Silenus hung in Celaenae at the source of the river Marsyas (Herodotus 7.26), and Pausanias mentions a statue group on the Athenian acropolis of Athena striking Marsyas for taking up the flutes she wanted thrown away (Pausanias 1.24.1).

Satyrs in Art and Literature

Depictions in Ancient Art

Satyrs were favourite subjects of sculptors. Pausanias mentions a Satyr by Praxiteles in the Street of the Tripods in Athens that its maker was said to prize above his other works, and another Satyr of Parian marble by Praxiteles beside the sanctuary image of Dionysus at Megara (Pausanias 1.20.1, 1.43.5).

Satyr Plays

Satyr plays were short comic dramas with a chorus of satyrs, performed alongside tragedies at Athens. Pausanias names Pratinas and his son Aristias of Phlius as writers of satyric plays (Pausanias 2.13.6). The only one that survives complete is Euripides’ Cyclops, which retells the story of Odysseus and Polyphemus from Odyssey 9 with Silenus and his satyrs as the Cyclops’ unwilling servants.

Misconceptions and Lesser-Known Facts

Satyrs and Pan Are Different Beings

The Homeric Hymn to Pan describes Pan as a goat-footed, two-horned god who roams the mountains with the nymphs (Hymn to Pan 19.1–5). Satyrs are not gods, but Dionysus’ companions, and the Hymn to Aphrodite names the Sileni separately from Hermes (Hymn to Aphrodite 5.262–263).

Satyrs and Sileni

The two names overlap. Pausanias says that the oldest of the Satyrs are called Sileni, and Herodotus and Pausanias call Marsyas a Silenus.

Satyrs Sources

Hesiod, Catalogue of Women fragment (Strabo 10.3.19). Homeric Hymn 5 to Aphrodite 262–263; Homeric Hymn 19 to Pan 1–5. Euripides, Cyclops 1–20, 76–81, 99–100. Herodotus 7.26, 8.138. Diodorus Siculus 4.5.3. Apollodorus, Library 1.4.2. Pausanias 1.4.5, 1.20.1, 1.23.5–6, 1.24.1, 1.43.5, 2.13.6, 6.24.8. Nonnus, Dionysiaca 13.

See Also: Dionysus, Maenads, Nymphs, Pan, Centaurs, Silenus, Marsyas