Cymbălum
（
κύμβαλον). A musical instrument in the shape of two half
globes, which were held one in each hand by the performer and played by being struck against
each other. The word is orig
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Cymbalistria. (Pompeii.)
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inally Greek, being derived from
κύμβος,
“a hollow.” In Greek it has several other significations, as the cone of a
helmet; it is also used for
ἀρδανία, the vessel of
purification placed at the door of a house where there had been a death. Besides this, it is
often employed metaphorically for an empty, noisy person, as Tiberius called Apion the
grammarian
cymbalum mundi. In the mediæval Latin it is used for
a church or convent bell and sometimes for the dome of a church.
The cymbal was usually made in the form of two half globes, either running off towards a
point, so as to be grasped by the whole hand, or with a handle. It was commonly of bronze, but
sometimes of baser material, to which Aristophanes alludes. As with the
crotalum, the performers were usually women and were known as
cymbalistriae. See
Crotalum;
Sistrum.
