a musical instrument of the stringed kind, much used by the ancients. This, considered only as an account of the first invention of the lyre, is not altogether so unnatural.
The most ancient representations of this instrument agree very well with the account of its invention: the lyre, in particular on the old celestial globes, was represented as made of one entire shell of a tortoise; and that Amphion in the celebrated group of the Dirce or Toro, in the Farnese palace at Rome, which is of Greek sculpture, and very high antiquity, is figured in the same manner.
There have, however, been many other claimants to the seven-stringed lyre. For though Mercury invented this instrument in the manner already related, it is said he afterwards gave it to Apollo, who was the first that played upon it with method, and made it the constant companion of poetry. According to Homer's account of this transaction, in his hymn to Mercury, it was given by that god to Apollo, as a peace-offering and indemnification for the oxen which he had stolen from him:
"To Phoebus Maia's son presents the lyre, A gift intended to appease his ire. The god receives it gladly, and offays The novel instrument a thousand ways; With dextrous skill the plectrum wields; and sings, With voice accordant to the trembling strings, Such strains as gods and men approve'd, from whence The sweet alliance sprung of sound and sense."
Diodorus informs us, that Apollo soon repenting of the cruelty with which he had treated Marfyas in consequence of their musical contest, broke the strings of the lyre, and by that means put a stop for a time to any further progress in the practice of that new instrument. "The muses (adds he) afterwards added to this instrument the string called mefe; Linus, that of liebanos; and Orpheus and Thamyras, those strings which are named hypate and parhypate (a)."
Again, many ancient and respectable authors tell us, that, before the time of Terpander, the Grecian lyre had only four strings; and, if we may believe Suidas, it remained in this state 856 years, from the time of Amphion, till Terpander added to it three new strings, which extended the musical scale to a heptachord, or seventh, and supplied the player with two conjoint tetrachords. It was about 150 years after this period, that Pythagoras is said to have added an eighth string to the lyre, in order to complete the octave, which consisted of two disjoint tetrachords.
(a) It has been already related, that the lyre invented by the Egyptian Mercury had but three strings; and by putting these two circumstances together, Dr Burney observes, we may perhaps acquire some knowledge of the progress of music, or, at least, of the extension of its scale, in the highest antiquity.
Mefe, in the Greek music, is the fourth sound of the second tetrachord of the great system, and first tetrachord invented by the ancients, answering to our A, on the fifth line in the base. If this sound then was added to the former three, it proves two important points: first, that the most ancient tetrachord was that from E in the base to A; and that the three original strings in the Mercurian and Apollonian lyre were tuned E, F, G, which the Greeks called Hypate Mefon, Parhypate Mefon, Mefon Diatonos. The addition therefore of Mefe to these, completed the first and most ancient tetrachord, E, F, G, A.
The string liebanos, then, being added to these, and answering to our D on the third line in the base, extended the compass downwards, and gave the ancient lyre a regular series of five sounds in the Doric mode, the most ancient of all the Greek modes; and the two strings called Hypate and Parhypate, corresponding with our B and C in the base, completed the heptachord, or seven sounds, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, a compass that received no addition till after the time of Pindar, who calls the instrument then in use the seven-tongued lyre. cept the Laocoon, is the only piece of Greek sculpture mentioned by Pliny that is now remaining. The two projections near the bottom seem to have been fastenings for the strings, and to have answered the purpose of tail-pieces in modern instruments.
2. The lyre held by Terpichore, in the picture of that muse dug out of Herculaneum.
3. The Abyssinian testudo, or lyre in use at present in the province of Tigre, from a drawing of Mr Bruce, communicated to Dr Burney. "This instrument (says he) has sometimes five, sometimes six, but most frequently seven strings, made of the thongs of raw sheep or goat skins, cut extremely fine, and twisted; they rot soon, are very subject to break in dry weather, and have scarce any found in wet. From the idea, however, of this instrument being to accompany and sustain a voice, one would think that it was better mounted formerly."
"The Abyssinians have a tradition, that the flint, lyre, and tambourine, were brought from Egypt into Ethiopia, by Thot, in the very first ages of the world. The flute, kettle-drum, and trumpet, they say, were brought from Palestine, with Menelek, the son of their queen of Saba by Solomon, who was their first Jewish king."
"The lyre in Amharic is called beg, 'the sheep'; in Ethiopic, it is called mefinko; the verb finko signifies to strike strings with the fingers: no plectrum is ever used in Abyssinia; so that mefinko, being literally interpreted, will signify the stringed instrument played upon with the fingers."
"The sides which constitute the frame of the lyre were anciently composed of the horns of an animal of the goat kind called agazan, about the size of a small cow, and common in the province of Tigre. I have seen several of these instruments very elegantly made of such horns, which nature seems to have shaped on purpose. Some of the horns of an African species of this animal may be seen in M. Buffon's history of the king of France's cabinet. They are bent, and less regular than the Abyssinian; but after fire-arms became common in the province of Tigre, and the woods were cut down, this animal being more scarce, the lyre has been made of a lighter wood; however, it is always cut into a spiral-twisted form, in imitation of the ancient materials of which the lyre was composed. The drawing I send you was one of these instruments made of wood."
"The kingdom of Tigre, which is the largest and most populous province of Abyssinia, and was during many ages the seat of the court, was the first which received letters and civil and religious government; it extended once to the Red Sea: various reasons and revolutions have obliged the inhabitants to resign their seats to different barbarous nations, Pagan and Mahometan: while they were in possession of it, they say that the Red Sea furnished them with tortoise-shells, of which they made the bellies of their lyres, as the Egyptians did formerly, according to Apollodorus and Lucian; but having now lost that resource, they have adopted, in its place, a particular species of gourd, or pumpkin, very hard and thin in the bark, still imitating with the knife the squares, compartments, and figure of the shell of the tortoise.
"The lyre is generally from three feet to three feet six inches high; that is, from a line drawn through the point of the horns, to the lower part of the base of the sounding board. It is exceedingly light, and easy of carriage, as an instrument should naturally be in so rugged and mountainous a country.
"When we consider the parts which compose this lyre, we cannot deny it the earliest antiquity. Man in his first state was a hunter and a fisher, and the oldest instrument was that which partakes most of that state. The lyre, composed of two principal pieces, owes the one to the horns of an animal, the other to the shell of a fish.
"It is probable, that the lyre continued with the Ethiopians in this rude state as long as they confined themselves to their rainy, steep, and rugged mountains; and afterwards, when many of them descended along the Nile in Egypt, its portability would recommend it in the extreme heats and weariness of their way. Upon their arrival in Egypt, they took up their habitation in caves, in the sides of mountains, which are inhabited to this day. Even in these circumstances, an instrument larger than the lyre must have been inconvenient and liable to accidents in those caverns; but when these people increased in numbers and courage, they ventured down into the plain, and built Thebes. Being now at their ease, and in a fine climate, all nature smiling around them, music and other arts were cultivated and refined, and the imperfect lyre was extended into an instrument of double its compass and volume. The size of the harp could be now no longer an objection; the Nile carried the inhabitants everywhere easily, and without effort; and we may naturally suppose in the fine evenings of that country, that the Nile was the favourite scene upon which this instrument was practised; at least the sphinx and lotus upon its head, seem to hint that it was someway connected with the overflowings of that river." See Harp.
4. An Etruscan lyre, with seven strings, in the collection of Etruscan, Greek, and Roman antiquities, published from the cabinet of the Hon. Sir William Hamilton, Vol. I. Naples 1766. Pl. cix. With respect to this instrument, it is worthy of observation, that though the vase upon which it is represented is of such indubitable and remote antiquity, the tail-piece, bridge, belly, and sound-holes, have a very modern appearance, and manifest a knowledge in the construction of musical instruments among the Etruscans superior to that of the Greeks and Romans in much later times. The lower part of the instrument has much the appearance of an old bass-viol, and it is not difficult to discover in it more than the embryo of the whole violin family. The strings lie round, as if intended to be played on with a bow; and even the crost lines on the tail-piece are such as we frequently see on the tail-pieces of old viols.
5. The Tripodian lyre of Pythagoras the Zacynthian, from a bas-relief in the Maffei palace at Rome representing the whole choir of the muses. Athenæus gives the following account of this extraordinary instrument, lib. xiv. cap. 15. p. 627. "Many ancient instruments are recorded (says Artemon), of which we have so little knowledge, that we can hardly be certain of their existence; such as the tripod of Pythagoras the Zacynthian, which, on account of its difficulty, continued in use but a short time. It resembled in form the Delphic tripod, whence it had its name. The legs were equidistant, and fixed..." upon a moveable base that was turned by the foot of the player; the strings were placed between the legs of the stool; the vase at the top served for the purpose of a sound-board, and the strings of the three sides of the instrument were tuned to three different modes, the Doric, Lydian, and Phrygian. The performer sat on a chair made on purpose; striking the strings with the fingers of the left hand, and using the plectrum with the right, at the same time turning the instrument with his foot to whichever of the three modes he pleased: so that by great practice he was enabled to change the modes with such velocity, that those who did not see him would imagine they heard three different performers playing in three different modes. After the death of this admirable musician, no other instrument of the same kind was ever constructed.
6. A lyre in the famous ancient picture dug out of Herculaneum, upon which Chiron is teaching the young Achilles to play. See CHIRON.