Lyra
（
λύρα, pure Latin,
fides). A stringed
musical instrument, said to have been invented by Hermes, who stretched four strings across
the shell of a tortoise. In historical times a whole tortoise
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Lyra. (Bianchini.)
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shell was used for the sounding-bottom, the curved horns of a goat or pieces of wood
of a similar shape were inserted in the openings for the front legs, and joined near the upper
ends by a transverse piece of wood called the yoke. On the breastplate of the shell was a low
bridge, across which the strings (usually seven) ran all at the same height to the yoke, and
were either simply wound round it or fastened to pegs; at the other end they were tied in
knots and fastened to the sounding-board. It was ordinarily played with the left hand, while
to produce louder and longer notes the strings were struck by the right hand with the
plectrum, the point of which was usually like the leaf of a tree, and
sometimes in the shape of a heart or like a little hammer.
The cithara differed from the lyra in replacing the shell by a wooden case either square or
angu
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Cithara. (Guhl and Koner.)
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lar, and instead of the so-called horns (
cornua) the sides of
the case were prolonged upwards, as shown in the accompanying illustration. The cithara,
therefore, represents an advance in point of construction over the lyre. The
φόρμιγξ of Homer is probably the lyre rather than the cithara, though
the word
λύρα is post-Homeric; and the
κίθαρις does not appear to have been different (
De Diff. Voc. p.
82). In later times, the cithara took on a form not unlike the modern guitar, the word guitar,
in fact, being a derivation of
cithara through the Italian
chitarra. See Von Jan,
De Fidibus Graecorum (Berlin,
1859), and the works mentioned in the article
Musica.
