Cithara

Apollo Citharoedus with kithara

The cithara or kithara (Greek: κιθάρα, kithāra, Latin: cithara) was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the lyre or lyra family. In modern Greek the word kithara has come to mean "guitar" (a word whose origins are found in kithara).^[1]

The kithara was a professional version of the two-stringed lyre. As opposed to the simpler lyre, which was a folk-instrument, the kithara was primarily used by professional musicians, called kitharodes. The kithara's origins are likely Asiatic.^[2] The barbiton was a bass version of the kithara^[3] popular in the eastern Aegean and ancient Asia Minor.

In the middle ages, cythara was also used generically for stringed instruments including lyres, but also including lute-like instruments.^[4][5] The use of the name throughout the middle ages looked back to the original Greek cithara and its abilities to sway people's emotions.^[4]

Construction

Greek vase drawing depicting a man playing a kithara with eight strings.

The kithara had a deep, wooden sounding box composed of two resonating tables, either flat or slightly arched, connected by ribs or sides of equal width. At the top, its strings were knotted around the crossbar or yoke (zugon) or to rings threaded over the bar, or wound around pegs. The other end of the strings was secured to a tail-piece after passing over a flat bridge, or the tail-piece and bridge were combined. Most vase paintings show kitharas with seven strings, in agreement with ancient authors, but these also mention that occasionally a skillful kitharode would use more than the conventional seven strings.

It was played with a rigid plectrum held in the right hand, with elbow outstretched and palm bent inwards, while the strings with undesired notes were damped with the straightened fingers of the left hand.

Uses

Alcaeus of Mytilene playing a kithara while Sappho listens by Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1881). The Walters Art Museum.

The kithara was played primarily to accompany dances and epic recitations, rhapsodies, odes, and lyric songs.^[3] It was also played solo at the receptions, banquets, national games, and trials of skill. The music from this instrument was said to be the lyre for drinking parties and is considered an invention of Terpander. Aristotle said that these string instruments were not for educational purposes but for pleasure only.

The kithara was the virtuoso's instrument, generally known as taking a great deal of skill.^[6]

Sappho is closely associated with music, especially string instruments like the kithara and the barbitos. She was a woman of high social standing and composed songs that focused on the emotions. A Greek mythology story goes that she ascended the steep slopes of Mount Parnassus where she was welcomed by the Muses. She wandered through the laurel grove and came upon the cave of Apollo, where she bathed in the Castalian Spring and took Phoebus' plectrum to play skillful music. The sacred nymphs danced while she stroked the strings with much talent to bring forth sweet musical melodies from the resonant kithara.^[7]

See also

• Barbiton
• Cythara
• Citharede
• Gittern, instrument with etymological connection to Kithara
• Guitar
• Harp
• Kinnor
• Lyre
• Phorminx
• Pandura
• Zither
• Ancient Greece
• Ancient Rome
• Music of ancient Greece

Notes

References

• Maas, Martha; Snyder, Jane McIntosh (1989), Stringed Instruments of Ancient Greece, New Haven: Yale University Press 

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Citharas.

• Bundrick, Sheramy D. (2005), Music and Image in Classical Athens, New York: Cambridge University Press 
•  Schlesinger, Kathleen (1911). "Cithara". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 395–397. 
• MMA staff, The Kithara in Ancient Greece | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, retrieved 2016-10-25 
• Hagel, Stefan, Ancient Greek Music, Oeaw.ac.at, retrieved 2016-10-25 

External links

• Ensemble Kérylos a music group directed by scholar Annie Bélis, dedicated to the recreation of ancient Greek and Roman music and playing instruments rebuilt on archaeological reference. In its recording D'Euripide aux premiers chretiens : musique de l'antiquité grecque et romaine, the band plays both Roman and Greek Kitharas. Pictures of its instruments can be seen on their website.

Greek musical instruments
Ancient	Aulos Pan flute Pandura Salpinx Water organ Lyre Barbiton Chelys Epigonion Kithara Phorminx Trigonon
String Instruments	Bowed instruments Byzantine lyra Cretan lyra Pontian lyra Plucked instruments Baglamas Bouzouki Karantouzeni Laouto Lavta Mandola Mandolin Psaltery Tambouras Thaboura Tzouras Struck instruments Santouri
Aerophones	Woodwind instruments Askomandoura Tsampouna Floghera Karamuza Lalitsa Mantura Souravli
Percussion instruments	Membranophones Tambourine Toubeleki Tympano Idiophones Cochilia Crotalum Koudounia Stamna Trigono Zilia
See also	Music of Greece Greek folk music Byzantine music Rebetiko Laïko Greek dances