Amongst the most primitive-looking stringed instruments of the Ancient World are the tortoise-lyres of Classical Greece.
The Greek lyra was made up of a frame of three wooden rods attached to the empty shell of a tortoise. Unlike some other ancient lyres (including the Greek kithara) its resonator was made from animal hide, stretched tightly over the rim of the shell, like the skin of a drum. In origin it may have been a folk-instrument.
With such a lyre Orpheus is said to have charmed the animals. Homer's phorminx may also have been of this sort.
Lyres were played in religious rites, in entertainment and in competitions. They normally had seven strings, and, like their later Germanic relatives and modern African counterparts, could play both elaborate tunes and simple, vigorous accompaniments to song and dance.
