Lyra Constellation

Lyra, the Lyre, is a small constellation whose association with Orpheus gives music a central place in its symbolism. His skill moves even the powers of the underworld, while his search for Eurydice places artistic mastery within an encounter with loss.

Robson associates the constellation with a harmonious and poetical temperament, with an aptitude for science and art, but also a tendency toward theft. Ptolemy assigns Venus and Mercury to its stars. Manilius connects the rising Lyre with skill in singing and instrumental music.

In a chart, Lyra's image suggests artistic sensitivity and romantic idealism. Creative discipline gives grief a form that another person can hear or recognize. Vega, the fifth-brightest star in the night sky, gives the small Lyre an unusually prominent place.

Lyra's story connects musical ability with the experience of grief and love. Orpheus's music could charm stones and tame wild beasts; in Ovid's Metamorphoses, it suspends the torments of the underworld during his plea for Eurydice, the wife he has lost.

In On Astrology, traditionally attributed to Lucian, the lyre's seven strings correspond to the seven planets of classical cosmology and the harmony of their movements.

In Greek mythology, the Lyre was created by the god Hermes from a tortoise shell and given to Apollo, who in turn gave it to Orpheus, the supreme musician of the ancient world. Orpheus's music was so beautiful that rivers changed course to listen, trees uprooted themselves to draw closer, and savage beasts lay down peacefully.

When Orpheus's wife Eurydice died from a snakebite, he descended to the underworld and played so movingly that Hades and Persephone were moved to tears. They agreed to release Eurydice on one condition: that Orpheus walk ahead and not look back until both had reached the surface. At the last moment, Orpheus looked back (out of love, doubt, or uncontrollable longing) and Eurydice was drawn back into the underworld forever.

Orpheus wandered in grief until he was torn apart by the Maenads (ecstatic followers of Dionysus), either because he rejected all love after Eurydice's loss or because his mournful music offended their frenzy. The Muses gathered his limbs and buried them, and Zeus placed his lyre among the stars.

In the East Asian tradition, Vega is Zhi Nu, the Weaver Girl, separated from her beloved Cowherd (Altair in Aquila) by the Milky Way. Their love story, celebrated annually during the Qixi/Tanabata festivals, is one of the most enduring romantic narratives in Asian culture.

Lyra is one of Ptolemy's 48 original constellations. Vega has been one of the most important stars in the history of astronomy: it was the first star (other than the Sun) to be photographed (1850), the first to have its spectrum recorded (1872), and served as the reference standard for the photometric magnitude system (originally defined so that Vega's magnitude was exactly zero). Due to precession, Vega was near the north celestial pole approximately 12,000 BCE and is expected to return near it around 13,700 CE.

Orpheus's search for Eurydice has given music a lasting association with devotion and loss. The story inspired Monteverdi's L'Orfeo and Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers treats the myth through comic opera. Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus returns to the relationship between song and mortality, while Jean Cocteau's film Orphée and Black Orpheus bring the lovers' story into modern settings. Painters have also repeatedly depicted Orpheus's descent and the moment he looks back.

Vega belongs to the Weaver Girl story in East Asian sky traditions, where the Milky Way separates lovers and weaving gives devotion a creative form.

Vega has also served as a reference in stellar photometry, with its brightness used to calibrate the measurement of other stars.

Lyra is best observed during summer and early autumn (June through September) in the Northern Hemisphere. Vega is unmistakable as one of the brightest stars in the summer sky, appearing nearly overhead from northern mid-latitudes. The constellation is small but distinctive: a compact parallelogram of fainter stars (representing the lyre's frame) attached to the brilliant Vega.

The Ring Nebula (M57), a textbook planetary nebula visible in small telescopes, lies between the two southern stars of the parallelogram.

Epsilon Lyrae, the famous "Double Double" star, is a rewarding target for telescope users. Visible from all northern latitudes and most of the Southern Hemisphere.