Lyra by Donetta Breeden Cross

Lyra by Donetta Breeden Cross is a Steampunk, hand carved wooden deer skull (from cedar), with brass overlay and repurposed brass rifle shell casings for antlers. It measures 11" (length, tip to tip) x 5" (width at widest point) x 2" (depth).

Lyra represents the lyre of Orpheus, the musician and poet in Greek mythology who met his end at the hands of the Bacchantes. When he passed, his lyre was thrown into a river. Zeus sent an eagle to get the lyre and placed both of them in the sky. Lyra is now a constellation that lies in the northern sky. It represents the lyre, a musical instrument with strings used in antiquity and later times.