The Greek Lyre: Where it All Began

http://www.ithacanmythologies.com/rumors/

Granted, you'll be hard-pressed to find a Greek lyre player these days. However, many instruments in the zither family have been influenced by the lyre in some way or the other. Included in the zither family is your ever popular guitar. That's right, you have to thank the Greeks for the menace known as Guitar Hero.

http://www.gamedeus.ru/games/pc/guitar-hero-3-legends-of-rock/

However, the lyre had a different status from the image the guitar has in modern times. In ancient Greece, the lyre was considered to be the superior instrument to the flute and mainly accompanied lyric poetry.

There were two main types of lyres, the lyra and the cithara. The lyra was primarily a folk instrument. The cithara, on the other hand, was a more substantial instrument which accompanied lyric poetry.

https://ru.pinterest.com/pin/519321400760553328/

The lyre had seven vertical strings of equal length which were picked with a plectrum held in the right hand. The strings were attached to a crossbar at one end of the lyre and the soundbox on the other end of the lyre. There were pegs on the crossbar for tuning.

Though most lyres had seven strings, this wasn't always constant. The lyric poet Homer used a simple lyre of three to five strings known as a kitharis or phorminx. According to the Roman historian Plutarch, the poet Terpander and the musician Olympus only used three strings on their lyres.

String length and thickness weren't constants either. Two lyric poets, Sappho and Alcaeus, used a type of lyre with longer strings and lower pitch known as a barbitos or barbiton.

https://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inventions/hsc12b.htm

However, there were really no vegetarian-friendly strings in ancient Greece. All strings for lyres were made of gut, which is cord from the intestines of animals such as sheep or goats. Nowdays, nearly all strings for instruments are steel or some other synthetic material.

Overall, the lyre was a beautiful, widely-used instrument in ancient Greece. The Greek lyre was in essence, the granddaddy of today's string instruments.

https://ru.pinterest.com/pin/489555421967740884/