Dueling Lyres

Question: Is Orpheus a god, or at least a minor immortal? He was the child of a muse and some stories say say Hades barred him from his realm after his failed attempt to bring his wife back from the dead. I am running a story where a son of Apollo has his lyre and I am wondering if he might come after him to get it back.

Orpheus is probably not a god; though he was almost definitely a Scion (not only is he usually said to be Calliope's son, but Apollodorus claims that his father was Apollo), he likely never got too much higher than mid-Demigod range, with impressive stories but an ultimately human ending. I love the idea of his lyre being passed on to a Scion of Apollo, particularly since it was Apollo that gave it to Orpheus in the first place. It's very appropriate, not to mention neat.

The problem with Orpheus doing much of anything is that he is very thoroughly dead. Though we often play fast and loose with death in Scion, Orpheus is a situation where I think it's almost unavoidable to view him as deceased; there are three or four different versions of his death, each more tragic and final than the last, and his lyre is taken by the Muses or the gods in most of them as well. I'm actually quite curious as to where you saw a version that resulted in him being barred from Hades - Ovid maintains that he went immediately to Hades and was finally reunited with Eurydice. I don't know why Hades would want to lock him out, anyway - I don't see what he'd gain by doing so.

I would assume Orpheus isn't about to come after his lyre - it was given to him by Apollo in the first place anyway, so Apollo can certainly give it to someone else, and after all the trouble he went to to finally be with Eurydice, I'm not sure why he'd leave the Underworld (if Hades would even let him out, which he is notoriously unwilling to do) and her to try to get it back. This is Scion, of course, however, so if you need Orpheus to be alive for some plot purpose, that can work as long as you come up with some reason (maybe Calliope traded in some favors to get him back, or someone stole Eurydice's soul so he's escaped to look for her, whatever floats your boat) for him to be around. The reason should probably be more detailed than just "so he can contest with my PC for the lyre", however; without a good reason for him to be there and in need of the lyre, your players may just be confused about the situation.

I'd suggest that if you really want your PC to have to fight for his super-cool magical instrument, you may not need Orpheus himself to be involved. Perhaps the Muses are sending agents to try to reclaim it after Apollo stole it from them, led by Orpheus' mother Calliope (hey! she put that lyre in the sky as a memento of her son, you can't just steal it and give it to someone else!). Perhaps Pan believes that he can finally defeat Apollo in a contest if he can compete using the ultimate instrument. Perhaps someone is trying to contact or resurrect Orpheus for their own purposes and is trying to steal the lyre to do it. There are endless possibilities when it comes to a Relic as mythically important and cool as Orpheus' lyre, so you don't have to feel limited to only involving its previous owner.

If you'd like your PC to meet up with Orpheus just for the coolness factor, that's also pretty easy to manage; if at any time those PCs go to Hades you have a great opportunity for him to stumble across his long-dead relative and bring up whatever subjects you think would be interesting.