![]() Unfortunately, Eurydice tripped just before the entrance edge and cried out, causing Orpheus to look back at her, thereby breaking the sole condition of her release and losing her back into Hades, this time for eternity. Orpheus played his lyre for Hades, god of the underworld, who was so charmed by the music that he relented and allowed Eurydice to return to the world of the living, provided that Orpheus not look back at her before she stepped clear of the entrance to Hades. ![]() ![]() Perhaps the most famous tale about Orpheus concerns his trip into Hades, the underworld, to rescue his wife, Eurydice, who had died from a snake bite. Orpheus accompanied Jason and the Argonauts on their quest for the "Golden Fleece", where, it is said, his music saved the crew from the man-eating Sirens they encountered on the voyage. Lyra is most often associated with Orpheus, the mythical Greek musician/poet whose talent with the lyre (an ancient stringed instrument similar to a small harp) was said to have charmed people, animals, and inanimate objects alike, and to have even pleased the gods. So, to satisfy curiosity, this week I will focus on Vega and the constellation of Lyra - the Lyre. While last week's column was not, in essence, about the Summer Triangle, but, rather, about the two summer constellations Cygnus - the Swan, and Aquila - the Eagle, a number of my readers wrote me, and asked why I hadn't written about Vega in Lyra (the third component star of the triangle).
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