Lyra · Vega
the lyre and its bright star
Today this word meansA small summer constellation and its leading star.
It is Orpheus's lyre, raised into the sky. After his death, the story goes, Zeus sent an eagle to retrieve it.
Vega comes from Arabic al-nasr al-wāqiʿ, "the swooping eagle."
In East Asia the same star is the Weaver Girl, facing the Herdsman (Altair, in Aquila) across the Milky Way — entirely different stories grown over the same sky.