ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by recounting briefly the story of Marsyas before the skin comes into play: it is a familiar enough tale of open rivalry and covert incestuous desire; this seems to make clear how, in onto-psychogenesis, the original functions of the Skin-ego are obscured, hidden and distorted by the primary and later secondary processes linked to the pregenital and genital developments and the oedipalisation of psychical functioning. First mytheme: Marsyas is hanged by Apollo from a pine tree. Second mytheme: the skin of the victim, who is suspended naked, is cut or pierced with a lance, to drain it of blood—either to fertilise the earth or to distract vampires from attacking family members. Third mytheme: while still alive, Marsyas is entirely flayed by Apollo and his empty skin is left hanging or nailed to the pine tree. The myth of Marsyas tells us nothing of what qualities of the skin stimulate sexual desire.
