FIG. 87. GIRLS PLAYING WITH ASTRAGALS
The lyre was the usual instrument of the amateur. Boys learned to play it at school, and gentlemen were expected to be able to accompany themselves upon it at symposia. Its sounding-board was made of the shell of a tortoise covered on one side with wood. The upright pieces, curved outward and in again toward the top, were sometimes made of the horns of animals. It had a yoke near the ends of the uprights, and a bridge on the sounding-board. The strings, of sheep’s guts or sinews, varied in number from three to eleven at different periods, but seven was the usual number in the fifth century. The plectron was generally used in playing both instruments. Several good illustrations of the lyre may be seen in the Museum collection. A satyr with a lyre decorates an amphora on the shelf in Case J in the Fourth Room. On the bottom of Case O is an amphora showing Kephalos with a lyre ([fig. 88]), and on the shelf above a boy singing to the lyre will be seen in the interior of a kylix. A man holding a lyre, probably a guest at a symposium, decorates the inside of a kylix in Case E. An interesting little bronze figure in Case C 2 in the Third Room represents a musician in festival dress with the same instrument. The statuette was probably a votive offering for success in a contest.
FIG. 88. YOUTH WITH A LYRE
FIG. 89. GIRL DANCING AND PLAYING THE CASTANETS
FIG. 90. APOLLO WITH A KITHARA
The ancient flute differed from the modern in being played at the end, and in having a vibrating reed as a mouthpiece. The tone was shrill. Flutes were always played in pairs, and a kind of bandage was often worn by the player to support their weight. This can be seen on the psykter in Case 4 and on a terracotta statuette from Cyprus in Case 1. Flute music had a very wide use. It accompanied the voice in solo or chorus, and the kithara at public contests; it was employed in the theatre at Athens and at Rome, and was used to guide and accompany the exercises of the palaistra. The flute furnished music for dancers, and in Rome it was played at funerals. Meals were served and work such as the kneading of bread in bakeries was done to its music. Flute-cases are often represented in interior scenes in Greek vase paintings, as on the inside of a kylix in Case O in the Fourth Room, showing a boy playing the lyre, and on a lekythos in Case K in that room where a woman is playing the same instrument. Another instrument was the syrinx or Pan’s pipe, made of reeds arranged in graduated lengths, fastened together with cords and wax. It was especially the shepherd’s companion in his long, solitary days with his flocks. The little faun which forms the pendant of the bracelet in Case K 2 in the Seventh Room is playing the syrinx. Cymbals were used principally at religious ceremonies of an orgiastic type. There are two pairs in the collection, one being marked with the owner’s name, Kallisthenia (Case 5 and Case C 2 in the Sixth Room). Dancing formed a part of worship in ancient times. The rude clay groups of men and women dancing in a ring illustrate a feature of the worship of Aphrodite in Cyprus (Case 1). In Greece boys were taught the exercises preliminary to a dancer’s training as a part of their physical education, and the many public festivals gave opportunity for large numbers to progress further. Professional dancers, both boys and girls, were employed to furnish entertainment at symposia. On a kylix on the bottom of Case L in the Fourth Room is a girl dancing and playing the castanets, while a young man looks on ([fig. 89]). Women of good family danced at home for amusement, and at domestic festivals. The character of Greek dancing was largely mimetic, the movements of the arms and the use of the drapery being very important (see [tail-piece, p. 75]). The terracotta dancers in Case L in the Seventh Room and another in Case 1 are good illustrations of this ([figs. 91-92]). The Romans in early times practised religious dancing. The processions of the Salii or priests of Mars, and of the Arval Brothers are the best-known examples of such ritual performances. Dancing as an amusement, however, they adopted from the Greeks in its period of decadence, and consequently the sterner moralists opposed it. Under the early Empire it nevertheless grew very fashionable. Girls and women of noble family learned to dance as an accomplishment, and even men of high rank danced, though at the cost of their dignity. Professional dancers were greatly sought after and admired.