“Marsyas, a celebrated but reckless flautist, challenged the god Apollo to a flute playing contest, which he predictably lost. Apollo tied him to a tree and flayed him alive. The use of French implicates the French revolutionary proponent of the Terror, Saint-Just, who was, like Apollo, renowned for his beauty. The great head emerging from the ground suggests that the rest of a huge statue remains to be excavated.”

Little Sparta. A Guide to the Garden by Jessie Sheeler.