MARCIA. Marsyas, a Phrygian flute player in Cybele's train, found a flute discarded by Pallas Athena because it distorted her lips when she played it. Marsyas challenged Apollo to a contest, to which Apollo agreed on condition that each play his instrument upside down as well as in its usual position. Since his instrument was the lyre, Apollo won the contest, then skinned Marsyas alive for his presumption. He hung the skin on a plane tree near the source of the river that now bears his name (Met VI.382-400; OM VI.1921-1980).

Marcia, who lost her skin through Apollo's envy, stands with musicians in Fame's house, HF III.1229-1232. Here Chaucer follows a tradition in which Marsyas is feminine. Marse appears in an interpolation of forty lines in several manuscripts of the Roman de la Rose, between lines 10830 and 10831, indicating a female. Marsie, which could be mistaken for a female name, occurs in OM VI.1921-1980. [Apollo: Phebus]

The name appears in medial position, HF III.1229.