Demigod son of Apollo (by the Muse Calliope per Apollod. 1.3.2; or by Psamathe of Argos per Paus. 1.43.7; or by Urania per the Theban Amphimarus-variant); the canonical-Greek inventor of melody, rhythm, and dirges. Music-teacher of Heracles, Orpheus, Thamyras, and Musaeus per Diod. 3.67. Killed by Heracles with his own lyre after rebuking the pupil for errors in the music-lesson per Apollod. 2.4.9 — the canonical-Greek over-strong-pupil-killing-the-tutor narrative, preserved iconographically on the Pistoxenos Painter Attic kylix c. 480 BCE. Heracles tried under a law of Rhadamanthys allowing self-defense and acquitted. The Linus-song lament-genre eponymously attached to him appears canonically in Iliad 18.570 — the boy on Hephaestus's shield-of-Achilles "singing of beautiful Linus." Brother of Orpheus per the canonical Apollodoran tradition, though some recensions make Orpheus great-grandson rather than brother. The Argive cult-tradition (Conon Narr. 19; Paus. 1.43.7) preserves the alternative Psamathe-mother and dog-killing-as-child variant; the Theban tradition (Paus. 9.29.6) preserves the killing-by-Apollo-for-musical-rivalry variant. Multiple recensions; canonical figures of all three.