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Literary notes about lyre (AI summary)

The term “lyre” in literature is employed as both a literal musical instrument and a symbol loaded with mythic and artistic resonance. Classical works such as Homer's epics ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]) frequently use the lyre to invoke the power of music in narrative, alluding to its divine heritage through figures like Apollo and Orpheus ([8], [9], [10]). Philosophers and poets, including those in the works of Plato ([11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17]) and Victor Hugo ([18], [19], [20]), employ the lyre as a metaphor for inspiration, order, and philosophical idealism. Romantic and Gothic writers such as Byron ([21], [22]) and Edgar Allan Poe ([23], [24], [25], [26], [27]) also turn to the lyre as an emblem of creative torment and sublime melancholy, further enriching its legacy as an instrument that bridges the human spirit with celestial harmony ([28], [29], [30]). This multifaceted usage across genres highlights the lyre’s capacity to evoke both the tangible beauty of music and the intangible allure of poetic inspiration.
  1. Demodocus has left his lyre at my house, so run some one or other of you and fetch it for him.
    — from The Odyssey by Homer
  2. " On this a servant hurried off to bring the lyre from the king's house, and the nine men who had been chosen as stewards stood forward.
    — from The Odyssey by Homer
  3. As soon as he touched his lyre and began to sing Telemachus spoke low to Minerva, with his head close to hers that no man might hear.
    — from The Odyssey by Homer
  4. He was standing near towards the trap door, 174 and held his lyre in his hand.
    — from The Odyssey by Homer
  5. He hung the lyre for him on a peg over his head, and showed him where he was to feel for it with his hands.
    — from The Odyssey by Homer
  6. Then Phemius took his lyre and set them all longing for sweet song and stately dance.
    — from The Odyssey by Homer
  7. Here a feast Was graved: to the shrill pipe and ringing lyre A band of blooming virgins led the dance.
    — from The Iliad by Homer
  8. 75 Apollo tuned the lyre; the Muses round With voice alternate aid the silver sound.
    — from The Iliad by Homer
  9. O for the Lyre of some Orpheus, to constrain, with touch of melodious strings, these mad masses into Order!
    — from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle
  10. You would wonder very much should this be the head and lyre of Orpheus.
    — from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais
  11. 394 A ; lord of the lyre, ib.
    — from The Republic of Plato by Plato
  12. There remain then only the lyre and the harp for use in the city, and the shepherds may have a pipe in the country.
    — from The Republic of Plato by Plato
  13. The lyre and the harp may be permitted in the town, and the Pan’s-pipe in the fields.
    — from The Republic of Plato by Plato
  14. There remain then only the lyre and the harp for use in the city, and the shepherds may have a pipe in the country.
    — from The Republic by Plato
  15. Lyre, the instrument of Apollo, and allowed in the best state, 3. 399 D .
    — from The Republic of Plato by Plato
  16. , 402 E ; must only learn the Dorian and Phrygian harmonies, and play on the lyre and harp, ib.
    — from The Republic of Plato by Plato
  17. The lyre and the harp may be permitted in the town, and the Pan's-pipe in the fields.
    — from The Republic by Plato
  18. Thou art my song and I the lyre; Thou art the breeze and I the brier; The altar I, and thou the fire; Mine the deep love, the beauty thine!
    — from Poems by Victor Hugo
  19. With you I'll breathe the air which ye respire, And, smiling, hide my melancholy lyre When it is wet with tears.
    — from Poems by Victor Hugo
  20. My lyre a voice shall be!
    — from Poems by Victor Hugo
  21. The company, whose birth, wealth, worth have cost My trembling lyre already several strings, Assembled with our hostess and mine host.
    — from Don Juan by Baron George Gordon Byron Byron
  22. And must thy lyre, so long divine, Degenerate into hands like mine?
    — from Don Juan by Baron George Gordon Byron Byron
  23. The proposition, in this form, will be admitted at once by those who love the lyre for its own sake, and for its spiritual uses.
    — from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe
  24. A mortal melody, While a bolder note than this might swell From my lyre within the sky.
    — from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe
  25. And when an hour with calmer wings Its down upon thy spirit flings— That little time with lyre and rhyme
    — from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe
  26. That Israfeli’s fire Is owing to that lyre By which he sits and sings— The trembling living wire Of those unusual strings.
    — from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe
  27. The proposition, in this form, will be admitted at once by those who love the lyre for its own sake, and for its spiritual uses.
    — from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe
  28. The whistle of the locomotive, more powerful than Amphion's lyre, was about to bid them rise from American soil.
    — from Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
  29. GOOD FELLOW The rabble by such hate are held, To maim and slay delights them: As Orpheus' lyre the brutes compelled, The bagpipe here unites them.
    — from Faust [part 1]. Translated Into English in the Original Metres by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  30. Vain of his skill, he challenged Apollo to a musical contest, he to play on the flute and Apollo on the lyre.
    — from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

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