It's a musical instrument, similar to a harp. Orpheus played this perfectly.
No!!!!
Long, long ago, there was a man named Orpheus who played an excellent lyre.
Then, one day, when Eurydice, Orpheus's wife, was in the woods, she was bitten by a snake and died.
Orpeus goes to the underworld in search of his wife
Orpheus stepped in the cave and found himself face to face with the three-headed dog Cerberus. Orpheus took out his lyre and began playing. This soothed Cerberus and Orpheus managed to slip by.
After walking through a long tunnel, he found Charon, an eerie skeleton who ferried the dead across the river Styx. Orpheus took out his lyre and began playing. Charon liked the music so much that he ferried Orpheus across the river.