Lyra

Lyra (Gk.), 1. stringed instr. of ancient Greece, a *bowl lyre with tortoise-shell resonator (or its imitation in wood), skin belly, and 2 curved arms, originally animal horns, projecting from the bowl and connected at the top by a crossbar. A variable number of gut strings of equal length were secured to the yoke by tuning rings, and attached at the lower end of the resonator, passing over a bridge that raised them off the belly. Earliest representations of the lyra are found on vases of the…