Sunday, March 25, 2007

Linus

Tartarus is where Greek gods go when they are defeated in battle. (Why send them to heaven when they've already been there? And hell - well, the battle was hell, so they've been there, too.) It's a gloomy place, Tartarus, could use some cheering up.

Now, Linus was not just Lucy's but Orpheus' brother. Naturally, he could carry a tune, which he did on the lyre, the Gibson of its day. He sung as well. Dreary laments for dead heroes, for the most part, but they paid the rent and he was able to land a lot of funeral gigs.

So accomplished was he as a lyrist, he taught Orpheus and the hulky kid down the street, Heracles, how to play. But Heracles' fingers were too big. He kept plucking the wrong strings. This bugged Linus to no end and he said so, called his student a bumbling oaf. Well, Heracles had a short fuse and this set him off. He clubbed Linus upside the head with the lyre, once, twice - enough times to do him in.

Naturally, Orpheus sang the ultimate Linus-song at his brother's funeral. From the shadows, Linus either approved or didn't, no one knows for sure. What is known - don't ask how - is Linus went to Tartarus singing a new song, one of life and hope, making his hell a bit less dreary.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny how it all works. It takes an incident like this to get the best of us to make Hell a better place for those that should be there before us. Or instead.


Life.


It's rubbish.

Jay King said...

And you won't enjoy it.