English: Orpheus playing his lyre. A St. Francis of another age he has enthralled the animals and even a tree. From Tarsus, last quarter of the third century AD. Inv. 10568. From Enc. Britt.: Orpheus was the son of a Muse (probably Calliope, the patron of epic poetry) and Oeagrus, a king of Thrace (other versions give Apollo). According to some legends, Apollo gave Orpheus his first lyre. Orpheus' singing and playing were so beautiful that animals and even trees and rocks moved about him in dance.