Greece is known as the birthplace of the Western World. Greece produced some of the best mathematicians this world, as well as architecture and pottery. Although these inventions and inventors were and are such great gifts to the world, none beats the brilliant inventions of their musical instruments.
One of these instruments was called a cithara, which is an advanced relative of the popular lyre. This instrument is famous because it is fabled to be invented by Apollo, the god of the sun and music. The cithara was played on occasions of ceremony, such as public games or festivals. The cithara had a sounding board, which extended into two arm pieces. The sounding board was made of thin wood pieces, plates of metal, or ivory, was generally the shape of a quadrilateral, sometimes ovaled, and was deeply vaulted on the back. The arms, like the sounding board, were broad and hollow, which helped the sound ring out. Since the cithara is rather heavy and had to be played standing up, it was provided with straps so the hands were free for playing. You could say a cithara was like an early guitar. Though beautiful, this instrument was only played by professionals, so
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Even though I already explained a string instrument, I will again, but an even more famous instrument. When I was previously discussing the cithara, I mentioned the lyre, but did not give any detail on it except that it is a relative of the cithara. This time, though, I will fully describe a lyre. You will mostly hear about lyres when someone is discussing Greek instruments, since they are probably the most famous Greek instruments. Some even call them the ancient national Greek instruments. The lyre was believed to be invented around 2000 B.C. by Hermes. It is told that a baby god Hermes created the lyre when he killed a tortoise and used its shell to make a base, then took its sinews and tied them on. Hermes had also stolen Lord Apollo’s cattle, which later Hermes traded for his new invention of the