LYRE, an ancient stringed musical instrument. The recita tions of the Greeks were accompanied by it. Yet the lyre was not of Greek origin ; no root in the language has been discovered for Xbpa, although the special names bestowed upon varieties of the instrument are Hellenic. We have to seek in Asia the birthplace of the genus, and to infer its introduction into Greece through Thrace or Lydia. Notwithstanding the Hermes tradition of the invention of the lyre in Egypt, the Egyptians seem to have adopted it from Assyria or Babylonia.
The frame of the lyre consisted of a hollow body or sound chest ()x€I.ov). From this sound-chest were raised two arms (irincets), which were sometimes hollow and were bent both out ward and forward. They were connected near the top by a cross-bar or yoke (fry6p, or, from its having once been a reed, Another crossbar (AltXas, inroXbpcov), fixed on the sound-chest, formed the bridge which transmitted the vibrations of the strings. The deepest note was the farthest from the player; but, as the strings did not differ much in length more weight may have been gained for the deeper notes by thicker strings, as in the violin and similar modern instru ments, or their tensions may have been slacker. The strings were of gut (xop67), whence chord). They were stretched be tween the yoke and bridge, or to a tail piece below the bridge. There were two ways of tuning, one was to fasten the strings to pegs which might be turned the other was to change the place of the string upon the crossbar; probably both expedients were simultaneously employed. The number of strings varied at different epochs, and possibly in dif ferent localities—four, seven and ten having been favourite num bers. They were used without a finger-board, no Greek descrip tion or representation having ever been met with that can be con strued as referring to one. Nor was a bow possible, the flat sound-board being an insuperable impediment. The plectrum, however, was in constant use : it was held in the right hand to set the upper strings in vibration ; at other times it hung from the lyre by a ribbon. The fingers of the left hand touched the lower strings (46,XXav).
With Greek authors the lyre has several distinct names ; but it is difficult to connect these with anything like certainty with the different varieties of the instru ment. Chelys (xiXvs, tortoise) may mean the smallest lyre, which, borne by one arm or sup ported by the knees, offered in the sound-chest a decided re semblance to that familiar ani mal. That there was a difference between lyre and cithara (KLOfipa) is certain, Plato and other writers separating them, while Hermes and Apollo had an altar at Olympia in common be cause the former had invented the lyre and the latter the cithara.
Further, this difference has per sisted ever since among the two distinct families of instruments descended from them. Thus in
the lyre the sound-chest con sisted of a vaulted back, in imitation of the tortoise, over which was directly glued a flat sound-board of wood or parchment. In the cithara (q.v.) the sound-chest was shallower, and the back and front were invariably connected by sides or ribs. These two methods of constructing the sound-chests of stringed instruments are essentially different; and to one or the other category every subsequent stringed instru ment with a neck may be referred.
There is no evidence as to what the stringing of the Greek lyre was in the heroic age. Plutarch says that Olympus and Terpander used but three strings to accompany their recitation. As the four strings led to seven and eight by doubling the tetrachord, so the trichord is connected with the hexachord, or six-stringed lyre de picted on so many archaic vases. Before the Greek civilization had assumed its historic form, there was likely to have been great freedom and independence of different localities in the matter of lyre stringing. We may regard the Olympus scale, however, as consisting of two tetrachords, eliding one interval in each, for the tetrachord, or series of four notes, was very early adopted as the fundamental principle of Greek music, and its origin in the lyre itself appears sure. The basis of the tetrachord is the employment of the thumb and first three fingers of the left hand to twang as many strings, the little finger not being used on account of natural weakness. As a succession of three whole tones would form the disagreeable and untunable interval of a tritonus, two whole tones and a half-tone were tuned, fixing the tetrachord in the constant interval of the perfect fourth. This succession of four notes being in the grasp of the hand was called cruXX0i, just as in language a group of letters incapable of further reduction is called syllable. In the combination of two syllables or tetrachords the prototype of our modern diatonic scales resulted.
the name for Australian birds of the genus Menura, allied to the scrub-birds (q.v.). Somewhat smaller than a pheasant, the common species (M. su perba) is remarkable for the three kinds of feathers composing the tail of the cock, giving the latter the appearance of an an cient lyre. It is very shy, inhabiting the thickest "bush." The cock displays on small hillocks, which he scratches up, and has a fine song. The food consists of in sects, , myriapods and snails. The nest is on or near the ground, closely woven of roots and fibres and lined with feathers. A single purplish-grey egg, blotched with pur plish brown, is laid. The young bird is clad in dark down. M. superba inhabits New South Wales, south Queensland and Victoria. There are two other species, M. victoriae, having much the same range as the last, and M. alberti, which is more northerly. The plumage of all three is brown.