Lyre [Gk. lyra], 1. chordophone with strings attached to a yoke that lies in the same plane as the resonator, and consists of 2 arms and a crossbar. Lyres are divided into *bowl lyres and *box lyres. The first variety is exemplified by the Gk. *lyra, the second by the *kithara. Box lyres can be traced back to ca. 2800 B.C., when they first appear on Sumerian art works. Eight specimens have been excavated at the royal cemetery of Ur, 3 of which, preserved in the Baghdad Museum, the British…