In this impressive, 1,000-page volume, Christopher Childers has collected almost all that remains of the highly prized verses that were written in Greek and Latin to accompany performance on the lyre. This collection of ‘lyric verse’ provides a roll-call of the greatest poetic voices to emerge in antiquity. Some names, such as Sappho, are still familiar to many today. For others, such as Ibycus, their star has unjustly fallen and the fragments that survive tantalise us with their potential.

The ancient lyre was the offspring of mischief and murder. Its origin myth begins with the precocious infant Hermes stealing the cattle of Apollo as a prank. Apollo failed to see any humour in the situation and when he discovered the child, literally red-handed, playing with the entrails of one of the cows that Hermes had decided to slaughter as a sacrifice, he advanced upon the young god fully intending to murder the babe. Infanticide was only averted when the crafty youngster, realising his dangerous predicament, offered a splendid gift to mollify and compensate Apollo. Grabbing a nearby tortoise, Hermes killed the poor animal, scooped out its insides, and then, affixing the cow guts to the outside of the shell, proceeded to strum the strings of gut. The empty tortoise shell acted as a sounding box and the plucking of the strings created such sweet notes that instantly the anger of Apollo dissipated. The lyre was born and Hermes gave Apollo the instrument to compensate him for the theft of his cattle.