The cretan lyra belongs to the bowed string instruments category. Its shape is pear like and has three strings with a tuning of A at 440Hz, D and G.

Material wise the craftsmen use old woods ussualy from mulbery, maple, walnuts for the body and cedar for the cap.

There are three main variations for the construction are the “lyraki” with a smaller body and a higher pitch sound, “vrodolyra”, which has a bigger size and a more base sound and also the “viololyra” which has an extra string of E as the violin.

The production of the sound is unique among the string instruments as it doesn’t occur with vertical pressing of the strings but with horizontal pushing with the top side of the nails. That is because the strings are much higher compared to the violin.

The lyra since the 9th century a.c. is the most important instrument expressing the Cretan melodies.

According to Greek mythology, the first Lyra was manufactured by the Olympian god Hermes who used the shell of a turtle, the skin of a goat and five intestinal chords. He then offered it to god Apollo as a sign of repentance for the animals he had stolen.

We also see references of the accompanying role of Lyra during the musical recitation of the Homeric poems.

Ancient, lyraki, vrodolyra, viololyra