The design on the Greek vase at Munich (already alluded to) represents the nine Muses, of whom three are given in the engraving ([Fig. 6]), viz., one with the harp, and two others with lyres. Some of the lyres were provided with a bridge, while others were without it. The largest was held probably on or between the knees, or were attached to the left arm by means of a band, to enable the performer to use his hands
without impediment. The strings, made of catgut or sinew, were more usually twanged with a plektron than merely with the fingers. The plektron was a short stem of ivory or metal pointed at both ends.
A fragment of a Greek lyre which was found in a tomb near Athens is deposited in the British Museum. The two pieces constituting its frame are of wood. Their length is about 18 inches, and the length of the cross-bar at the top is about 9 inches. The instrument is unhappily in a condition too dilapidated and imperfect to be of any essential use to the musical inquirer.
The trigonon consisted originally of an angular frame, to which the strings were affixed. In the course of time a third bar was added to resist the tension of the strings, and its triangular frame resembled in shape the Greek delta. Subsequently it was still further improved, the upper bar of the frame being made slightly curved, whereby the instrument obtained greater strength and more elegance of form.
The magadis, also called pektis, had twenty strings which were tuned in octaves, and therefore produced only ten tones. It appears to have been some sort of dulcimer, but information respecting its construction is still wanting. There appears to have been also a kind of bagpipe in use called magadis, of which nothing certain is known. Possibly, the same name may have been applied to two different instruments.
Fig. 7.—Pair of Bronze Flutes, with mouthpiece in the form of the bust of a Mænad holding a bunch of grapes. Greek.
British Museum.
The barbitos was likewise a stringed instrument of this kind. The sambyke is traditionally said to have been invented by Ibykos, about 560 B.C. The simikon had thirty-five strings, and derived its name from its inventor, Simos, who lived about 600 B.C. It was perhaps a kind of dulcimer. The nabla had ten, or according to Josephus, twelve strings, and probably resembled the nevel of the Hebrews, of which but little is known with certainty. The pandoura is supposed to have been a kind of lute with three strings. Several of the instruments just noticed were used in Greece, chiefly by musicians who had immigrated from Asia; they can therefore hardly be considered as national musical instruments of the Greeks. The monochord had (as its name implies) only a single string, and was used as a tuning string.
The aulos, of which there were many varieties, was a highly popular instrument, and differed in construction from the flutes and pipes of the ancient Egyptians. Instead of being blown through a hole at the side near the top it was held like a flageolet, and a vibrating reed was inserted into the mouth-piece, so that it might be more properly described as a kind of oboe or clarinet. The Greeks were accustomed to designate by the name of aulos all wind instruments of the flute and oboe kind, some of which were constructed like the flageolet or like our antiquated flûte à bec. The single flute was called monaulos (Fig. 7), and the double one diaulos ([Fig. 8]). A diaulos, which was found in a tomb at Athens, is in the British Museum. The wood of which it is made seems to be cedar, and the tubes are fifteen inches in length. Each tube has a separate mouth-piece and six finger-holes, five of which are at the upper side and one is underneath.