The Lyre

The lyre was one of the most popular instruments in ancient Greece. It was used for both simple recreation and education ( Landels, 7 ). In daily life, an ancient Greek might encounter lyre music on weddings, symposia, and theatre productions ( Mathiesen, 247 ). Both young and old, male and female played the instrument. It has been described as an 'ordinary instrument of the non-professional' ( West, 57 ).

To supply these various audiences with instruments, a steady supply of lyres was required. In  Homeric Hymn 4 , the rough guide on how to build a lyre is found:

‘[Hermes] took up the tortoise in both hands and went back into the house carrying his charming toy. Then he cut off its limbs and scooped out the marrow of the mountain-tortoise with a scoop of grey iron [...] He cut stalks of reed to measure and fixed them, fastening their ends across the back and through the shell of the tortoise, and then stretched ox hide all over it by his skill. Also he put in the horns and fitted a cross-piece upon the two of them, and stretched seven strings of sheep-gut.' [Bold added for emphasis]

In short, to build a lyre, you needed a tortoiseshell, stalks of reed, ox hide, horns, wood, and sheep-gut. Not all lyres featured horns as arms, however, as this was considered an old practice. Instead, hardwood was more common ( Creese, 91 ). A possible return to horns might have occurred, when a 'vintage' design was aimed for, causing instrument makers to consult the  Homeric Hymn .

Not mentioned in the myth are the rope, nails, and tailpiece. There was also a possibility of glue to fasten the arms to the tortoiseshell and the crossbar to the arms. Alternatively, some rope could have been used for these purposes ( Kostas Kotsanas, 19-21 ). The same rope could also have been used for stretching the ox hide over the tortoiseshell ( ibid, 21 ). Nevertheless, the hide could also have been attached with metal nails ( Creese, 90 ;  Castaldo 354 ;  Koumartzis et al., 236 ). More metal would have been used for the tailpiece, to which the strings are attached on the bottom ( Mathiesen, 241 ;  Castaldo, 354 ).

Return to the main story below:

• Castaldo, Daniela. “ Sound Boxes of Ancient Greek Lyres from Roca (Lecce, Italy) .” Studien Zur Musikarchäologie VI, Orient-Archäologie, 2008. http://www.academia.edu/download/31183072/Musik6_353_358_Castaldo_280408.pdf
• Creese, David E. “ The Origin of the Greek Tortoise-Shell Lyre .” Dalhousie University, 1997. https://doi.org/0-612-24822-4.
• Kostas Kotsanas.  The Musical Instruments of the Ancient Greeks: From the Guitar of Apollo to the Hydraulis of Ctesibius . Edited by Angela Prinos. Pyrgos: Kostas Kotsanas, 2009.
• Koumartzis, Nikolaos, D. Tzetzis, Panagiotis Kyratsis, and Rigas G. Kotsakis. “ A New Instrument from Ancient Times: Modern Reconstruction of the Greek Lyre of Hermes Using 3D Laser Scanning, Advanced Computer Aided Design and Audio Analysis .” Journal of New Music Research 44, no. 4 (2015): 324–46. https://doi.org/10.1080/09298215.2015.1106563.
• Landels, John G.  Music in Ancient Greece and Rome . London and New York: Routledge, 1999.
• Mathiesen, Thomas J.  Apollo’s Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages . Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999.
• West, Martin Lichtfield.  Ancient Greek Music . Clarendon Press, 1992.