(κυμβαλον), a musical instrument in use among the ancients. The cymbal was made of brafs, like our kettle-drums, and, as some think, in their form, but smaller, and of different use. Ovid gives cymbals the epithet of genalia, because they were used at weddings and other diversions.
Cassiodorus and Isidore call this instrument acetabulum, the name of a cup or cavity of a bone wherein another is articulated; and Xenophon compares it to a horse's hoof; whence it must have been hollow; which appears, too, from the figure of several other things denominated from it; as a basin, caldron, goblet, caulk, and even a shoe, such as those of Empedocles, which were of brafs.
In reality, the ancient cymbals appear to have been very different from our kettle-drums, and their use of another kind: to their exterior cavity was fastened a handle; whence Pliny compares them to the upper part of the thigh, and Rabanus to phials.
They were struck against one another in cadence, and made a very acute sound. Their invention was attributed to Cybele; whence their use in feasts and sacrifices: setting aside this occasion, they were seldom used but by disolute and effeminate people. M. Lampe, who has written expressly on the subject, attributes the invention to the Curetes, or inhabitants of Mount Ida in Crete; it is certain these, as well as the Corybantes or guards of the kings of Crete, and those of Rhodes and Samothracia, were reputed to excel in the music of the cymbal.
The Jews had their cymbals, or at least instruments which translators render cymbals; but as to their matter and form, critics are still in the dark. The modern cymbal is a mean instrument, chiefly in use among vagrants, gypsies, &c. It consists of steel wire in a triangular form, whereon are passed five rings, which are touched and shifted along the triangle with an iron rod held in the left hand, while it is supported in the right by a ring, to give it the freer motion. Durandus says, that the monks used the word cymbal for the cloister-bell, used to call them to the refectory.