Chapter 2
The Gift
Music and song, and the ways of grace and creation became a part of the life of that child as he grew up among the Muses in and around the forests and fields, and crashing seaside near Pieria, in the shadow of Olympus.
He was Calliope’s son, and she doted on him, taught him all that she knew of the secrets of art and creation, but he was, in truth, adopted by every Muse who had been present at Helicon on the night of his birth. All nine of those goddesses had a hand in raising the child, of teaching him the secrets of their arts. Their hearts were bound to him, and he to them, and the forests, hills, and plains echoed with the joys of that sacred pact.
Orpheus, however, stood apart from the world of men, lost in song and thought, and words to make one forget the pain
