Amphion Builds the Wall of Thebes. A.M. 2634.

This is part of a group of drawings by British artist and book illustrator Edward Francis Burney, depicting scenes from Greek and Roman history and mythology. Amphion, seen here playing the lute, was the twin of Zethus. Both had been abandoned at birth by their parents, Antiope and Zeus, and were raised by a sheperd. The god, Hermes, gave Amphion a lyre and he became a great musician. Here he is using his music to charm the stones needed to build the walls of a city which was eventually named Thebes after the nymph Thebe, wife of Zethus.