Crotalum: Greece musical instrument
In classical antiquity, a crotalum was a type of clapper or castanet used in religious dances by groups in the ancient Greece and some oth...
https://worldhitz4u.blogspot.com/2013/12/crotalum-greece-musical-instrument.html
In classical antiquity, a crotalum
was a type of clapper or castanet used in religious dances by groups in the
ancient Greece and some other places, including the Korybantes.
The name of the instrument has been
erroneously thought by some writers to be the same with the sistrum. The
mistake was corrected by Friedrich Lampe in De cymbalis veterum. From the suda,
and the scholiast on Aristophanes, it seems to have been a split reed or cane
that clattered when it is being shaken with the hand. According to Eustathius,
the musical instrument was produced with the use of shell and brass, and wood
as well. Clement of Alexandria attributes the musical instrument invention to
the Sicilians, and banned the use of the instrument to the Christians, because
of the motion and philosophies following the practice of the instrument.
As the musical instrument made noise
that is analogous to the crane’s bill, the bird was called ‘crotalistria’, player
on crotala. Woment that played the musical instrument are called
‘crotalistriae’, and such person was Virgil’s Copa.
The name of the instrument is usually
applied, by an easy metaphor, to a noisy talkative person, but it might be a
false cognate, and could be interesting to note that one rattlesnake that is
found in Spain is called crotalo.
