Lyre of Orpheus
The lyre of Orpheus, a gift from Apollo or Hermes with the power to charm beasts, trees, and stones and to move the dead; its music soothed Cerberus and won Hades' consent to let Eurydice return, a bargain lost when Orpheus looked back on the way out of the underworld. Ancient poetry names it a gift of Apollo or Hermes, and its seven strings were said to mirror the seven planets. After his death the lyre was set among the stars as the constellation Lyra. It is the emblem of music's power over nature and death in Greek myth, and its sound has been painted and sung for three thousand years.