Barbiton, barbitos

Barbiton, barbitos a variety of lyra of ancient Greece, concerning which we know little more than that it was tuned an oct. lower than the pektis and was played with a plectrum. As mention is made of the low pitch, we may infer that it was a form of lyra with strings longer than usual. From the late 6th c. B.C. to the mid-5th c. B.C. an elongated form of lyra appears on vases, with delicately incurved arms, and some writers now associate this form with the barbiton. With the Roman poets it…