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poet of the Homeric Hymn to Hermes applies all three words, as well as chelys ('tortoise'), to the bowl lyre that Hermes makes from a tortoise shell. In an Attic vase-painting of the earlier sixth century BC6 a tortoise-shell lyre is labelled LYRA. Pindar uses both phorminx and lyra of his own instrument, which was probably a box lyre (of whatever shape). Other poets too seem to use the terms interchangeably.7 Barbitos (in late Greek also barbiton) stands apart: it is relatively rare, and when it is used in the Classical period it seems to refer specifically to the long-armed bowl lyre. Fourth-century writers distinguish kithara, lyra, and barbitos as different instruments.8 They do not mention phorminx, which had probably been a strictly poetic word for a considerable time. There is no doubt that by kithara they mean the box lyre, as used by citharodes in vase paintings, and by lyra the ordinary bowl lyre. In what follows I shall use 'lyra' in this specific sense while continuing to use 'lyre' in the generic sense. |
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After the Mycenaean period there is very little evidence until the mid-eighth century, when scenes of human activity came back into artistic fashion in Greece. A Cypriote pot of the eleventh century and another of c. 800 show round-based kitharas with three and four strings respectively. In a third Cypriote representation of c. 850 the base is somewhat pointed, though it is a rounded point; again there are three strings.9 |
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In late Geometric art (mid-eighth to early seventh century) lyres appear more frequently.10 They are nearly all box lyres, and predominantly round-based, though a few have a pointed base. The |
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(Footnote continued from previous page) |
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same is true of lyra.) It may be a modification of kitharos, which appears in medical writing with the sense 'thorax', but which may originally have been a word denoting some sort of foreign-made chest. The form kithara appeared early in the 5th c., no doubt by analogy with lyra, and soon prevailed over kitharis. |
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6 Munich 2243, Maas-Snyder, 48 fig. 12. |
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7 'Theog.' 761, 778/792, Simon. PMG 511 fr. 1 a. 5, Aesch. Supp. 697, Eum. 332, Bacchyl. 1. 1, 4. 7. 14. 13, Ar. Av. 219, Thesm. 327, Eur. Phoen. 822/5, etc. See Maas-Snyder, 79f. |
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8 Pl. Resp. 399d; Arist. Pol. 1341a19/40; Aristox. fr. 102 (who opines that Homer's kitharis was a lyra and not a kithara); Anaxilas fr. 15 K.-A. Later writers also distinguish kithara from lyra, e.g. Ptol. Harm. 1. 16, 2. 16, Paus. 5. 14. 8, Aristid. Quint. pp. 85. 8/14, 91. 2/5, 92. 11. |
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9 All illustrated in Maas-Snyder, 19; my Pl. 12. |
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10 For detailed surveys see Wegner, Musik und Tanz, 3-16; Maas-Snyder, 11-23. |
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