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Greek stringed instrument12/31/2023 Lyres frequently appear on later Greek pottery - geometric, red- and black-figure pottery - from the 8th century BCE. ![]() Decorated ivory fragments of lyres survive from Mycenae. A sarcophagus from Hagia Triada depicts a seven-string lyre, a wall-painting from Mycenaean Pylos has a five-string lyre and a krater from Tiryns depicts a three-string version. Lyres were also used as decorative motifs on late Minoan pottery. Slightly later, across the Aegean in the 14th century BCE, lyres develop S-shaped arms and are frequently decorated with water-birds. At Knossos on Crete a small alabaster lyre is decorated with a swan's head on each arm of the instrument. At Akrotiri on Thera, a fresco shows a small triangular lyre played by a blue monkey. 2000 BCE) in the Cycladic and Minoan civilizations. Greek lyres are frequently depicted in all forms of Greek art and the earliest examples date from the middle Bronze Age (c. In addition, Minoan hieroglyphs had a unique symbol for musicians, and a Linear B tablet from Thebes (1250-1200 BCE) mentions lyre players as members of the Mycenaean palace staff. Certainly, musicians enjoyed special status as their distinctive costume of a long gown in Greek art shows. The majority of musicians who played the lyre were male, but some depictions in art, most notably the clay dancers from Minoan Palaikastro (1420-1300 BCE), do show a female lyre player. Played sitting or standing, the instrument was held in the hand and sometimes supported with a carrying strap worn over the shoulder of the player. Seven strings ( neurai or chordai) of equal length but varying thickness (usually made from sheep gut) stretched between the crossbar and a fixed tailpiece ( chordotonon) and were played by strumming or plucking by hand, usually using a plectrum made of wood, ivory, or metal. The stringed instrument usually had two fixed upright arms ( pecheis) or horns ( kerata) and a crossbar ( zygos) with tuning pegs ( kollopes) of bronze, wood, ivory, or bone. The ancient lyre was played either alone or as an accompaniment to singing or lyric poetry. Other mythical figures often seen with a lyre include Eros and the Muses. However, the invention of the seven-string version of the lyre is credited to Terpander of Lesbos. Orpheus was believed to be Thracian, which helped reinforce the belief that the lyre had its origins there. Apollo also taught that other great mythical musician, Orpheus, how to play the instrument which would become his emblem. Apollo, from that point on, was considered the player par excellence of the lyre. Apollo discovered the theft and was only placated by Hermes' offer of the lyre. ![]() The messenger god made the instrument from a tortoise shell, gut, and reeds, principally to help him steal 50 prize cattle from Apollo's sacred herd. In Greek mythology, all four instruments are often named interchangeably in various myths, and Hermes is generally credited with their invention. It was closely related to the other stringed instruments: the chelys which was made from a tortoise shell, the four-stringed phorminx, and the seven-stringed kithara. The lyre was a stringed musical instrument played by the ancient Greeks and was probably the most important and well-known instrument in the Greek world.
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