Cartwright, M. (2012, December 16). There are various accounts of five, In Greek Mythology, Orpheus was the greatest lyre player in the world. In the same period, coins of Thespiai - where there was a temple dedicated to Apollo and another to the Muses - carried a three-stringed lyre on their reverse sides. 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. 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. There were a group of twelve ruling gods who ruled after the Titans were overthrown. Orpheus with nymphs The lyre is similar in appearance to a small harp but with distinct differences. In Greek mythology, the swan is a bird sacred to Aphrodite and Apollo. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. Apollo, figuring out it was Hermes who had his cows, confronted the young god. The last of the bowed yoke lyres with fingerboard was the "modern" (c. 1485–1800) Welsh crwth. The lyre was originally invented by the new-born Hermes, making use of a tortoise shell. Apollo then exchanged cattle for this new musical instrument, and Apollo would later present this lyre to Orpheus . While it is the symbol of the Olympian Apollo, he did not invent it but he did barter for it. 10 Jan 2021. as the historic birthplace of the genus. Music (or mousike) was an integral part of life in the ancient... Orpheus is a figure from ancient Greek mythology, most famous for... Sappho of Lesbos (c. 620-570 BCE) was a lyric poet whose work was... A kylix depicting the god Apollo pouring a libation and holding... Silver stater from Calymna, Caria, 600-550 BCE. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 16 Dec 2012. When Orpheus fell in love with Eurydice, he wooed her with his song. They are connected near the top by a crossbar or yoke. GALLERIES. Extending from this sound-chest are two raised arms, which are sometimes hollow, and are curved both outward and forward. [citation needed] The instrument is still played in north-eastern parts of Africa. Sometimes the hero, even though mortal, was somehow related to the gods. [9], A classical lyre has a hollow body or sound-chest (also known as soundbox or resonator), which, in ancient Greek tradition, was made out of turtle shell. Along the way, Hermes slaughtered one of the cows and offered all but the entrails to the gods. Amphion became a great singer and musician, Zethus a hunter and herdsman. Complete lyres survive from the Hellenistic period, a notable example being the bronze lyre from the Antikythera shipwreck. Some Rights Reserved (2009-2021) under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license unless otherwise noted. Apollo, from that point on, was considered the player par excellence of the lyre. Apollo gave his son the lyre as a gift, and Orpheus played it so well that even the wild beasts, the rocks, and the trees were charmed by his music. [1][2], The lyre of classical antiquity was ordinarily played by being strummed with a plectrum (pick), like a guitar or a zither, rather than being plucked with the fingers as with a harp. Cartwright, Mark. Apollo discovered the theft and was only placated by Hermes’ offer of the lyre. Apollo Greek God Unique Wall Painting (Playing Lyre) Greek Mythology Handmade on Wood 25cm Statuescrafts. The lyre (lyra) is a musical instrument from Ancient Greece. In Ancient Greece, recitations of lyric poetry were accompanied by lyre playing. (In Euripides’ lost Antiope the two young men [6] Before Greek civilization had assumed its historic form, there was likely to have been great freedom and independence of different localities in the matter of lyre stringing, which is corroborated by the antique use of the chromatic (half-tone) and enharmonic (quarter-tone) tunings pointing to an early exuberance, and perhaps also to a bias towards refinements of intonation. One day, when he was only just big enough to walk, he ran out of doors to play in the sunshine, and saw a spotted tortoise-shell lying in the grass. 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. Mark is a history writer based in Italy. Greek Vase Paintings 2. Apollo also taught that other great mythical musician, Orpheus, how to play the instrument which would become his emblem. She is depicted as a girl with harmonic lines played with a wreath of flowers and carrying a lyre in her hand. Lyres appearing to have emerged independently of Greco-Roman prototypes were used by the Germanic and Celtic peoples over a thousand years ago (sometimes called psalterys). The 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. Zeus sent an eagle to get the lyre and placed both of them in the sky. They were called Olympians because, according to tradition, they resided on Mount Olympus. Other instruments known as lyres have been fashioned and used in Europe outside the Greco-Roman world since at least the Iron Age. They are connected near the top by a crossbar or yoke. Some of the cultures using and developing the lyre were the Aeolian and Ionian Greek colonies on the coasts of Asia (ancient Asia Minor, modern day Turkey) bordering the Lydian empire. There were two ways of tuning: one was to fasten the strings to pegs that might be turned, while the other was to change the placement of the string on the crossbar; it is likely that both expedients were used simultaneously. According to ancient Greek mythology, Hermes was the one who invented the lyre in the first place. He fell deeply in love with the nymph Eurydice, and the two were married. Some mythic masters like Musaeus, and Thamyris were believed to have been born in Thrace, another place of extensive Greek colonization. They were stretched between the yoke and bridge, or to a tailpiece below the bridge. Hence, the creation of the lyre is attributed to Hermes. Other characters from Greek mythology were also associated with the lyre: Orpheus, the minstrel famous for his sweet singing voice and vivid storytelling skills, was one of them, and even the hero Heracles (Hercules to the Romans) was taught the lyre as part of his early education. Examples of that difference include a piano (a keyed zither) and a violin (referred to by some as a species of fingerboard lyre). Pitch was changed on individual strings by pressing the string firmly against the fingerboard with the fingertips. [6] The English word comes via Latin from the Greek. Lyra represents the lyre played by Orpheus, musician of the Argonauts and son of Apollo and the muse Calliope. At Knossos on Crete a small alabaster lyre is decorated with a swan’s head on each arm of the instrument. As so often happens In Greek mythology though, tragedy struck when Eurydice was bitten by a snake in the forest and died. "Lyre." Apollo was furious, but after hearing the sound of the lyre, his anger faded. The fingers of the free hand silenced the unwanted strings in the chord. Greek Vase Paintings 3. The Ancient History Encyclopedia logo is a registered EU trademark. Even mythical figures enjoyed the benefits of a musical education; for example, Achilles was taught to play the lyre by the wise centaur Cheiron. GREEK MYTHOLOGY. The Muses were the daughters of Zeus, king of gods, and Mnemosyne, goddess of memory.They were born after the pair lay together for nine nights in a row. Those specialists maintain that the zither is distinguished by strings spread across all or most of its soundboard, or the top surface of its sound-chest, also called soundbox or resonator, as opposed to the lyre, whose strings emanate from a more or less common point off the soundboard, such as a tailpiece. Depending on the region where they were celebrated, both the names and the number of Muses varied. In fact, in her origin, Terpsichore was a nymph linked to nature, and in some versions, she is considered the mother of mermaids. [7], The term is also used metaphorically to refer to the work or skill of a poet, as in Shelley's "Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is"[8] or Byron's "I wish to tune my quivering lyre, / To deeds of fame, and notes of fire". The lyre was played either alone or as an accompaniment to singing or lyric poetry at all manner of occasions such as official banquets, symposia (private drinking parties), religious ceremonies, funerals, and in musical competitions such as those held at the great Panathanaia, Pythia, and Karneia festivals. He played the lyre in such a way that stones were made to move. Dates of origin, which probably vary from region to region, cannot be determined, but the oldest known fragments of such instruments are thought to date from the fifth century England with the Discovery of the Abingdon Lyre. 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