Singing Them Back To Life

By Saisha Jain

Lara found the golden lyre in the chest in her attic. It had just come back from her family’s old home, where all the stuff which her ancestors, had were collected and kept in good condition. Given, Lara wasn’t meant to touch that chest—it was forbidden with the highest decree in her mother’s household—but what did she expect? Lara was a curious, teenage girl with a well-known rebellious streak. She must admit though, she was awfully disappointed when all she found in the chest was tons of books and journals and jewellery. That was till she caught sight of the lyre. It was beautiful, and Lara would never repeat this again but she was sure it called to her. Lara was a musician, something that she took pride in, but never more than her family. Whenever her mother would hear her play, she would smile wistfully and say “It’s like you were blessed by the Lord Apollo himself.”

Now, Lara was already the odd one in the school as she belonged to a Greek family—she didn’t need to be the freak who was blessed by the golden god, thank you very much. She didn’t believe in the gods as much as her family—myths or not, they faded a long time ago.

Nonetheless, it didn’t stop her aunt from always telling stories about an ancestor of theirs. The sister of the High Priestess of Apollo, who was given Apollo’s lyre by her sister, simply out of jealousy. The young girl had believed that it was a gift blessed by the divine and accepted it humbly, believed that the ravens were just the god’s anger towards her not being good enough. “But her music wasn’t only amplified,” Lara’s aunt would say. “It was bought to life.” So when the girl sang of the tragic death of the young maiden, unknowingly bringing her own demise, the High Priestess grieved and in great sorrow and regret, locked the lyre away.

Lara didn’t believe the story but she thinks she understood the moral her aunt was trying to explain. She admitted she had little pride, for she would never befall the same fate. Never be fooled as the lady had. And she supposes that was why she never saw the reason her music was better and believed it was her own skills.

But when she sang the songs of the Greek gods at her mother’s command, the world trembled. The seas shifted and the skies poured—the gods had risen. The worst was Gaia, mother earth. Lara couldn’t blame her, humanity had, after all killed her and destroyed her very being. But all her pride and curiosity turned into terror when Apollo turned to look at her with eyes that seemed to look straight into her and read every fibre of her being. She heard one word which contained every melody, every sound, hymn and art of the world. “Play.”

By Saisha Jain