CITHARA: Israel musical instrument

The cithara or kithara was an ancient Greek musical instrument that belongs to the family of lyre musical instruments. In the Modern Greek, the word kithara has come to means guitar.

The musical instrument was a professional version of the two-stringed lyre. As opposed to the simpler lyre that was a folk musical instrument, the cithara was mainly used by professional musicians that are known as ‘kitharodes’. The origin of the instruments is likely Asiatic. The barbiton was a bass version of this musical instrument popular in the eastern Aegean and the old Asia Minor.

The musical instrument had a deep, wooden sounding box that is made up of resonating tables, either flat or a little bit arched, linked by ribs or sides of equal width. At the top of it, its strings were knotted around the crossbar or yoke or to rings that was threaded over the bar, or wound around the peg of the instrument. The other extreme of the strings were guided to a tail-piece after passing over a flat bridge, or the tail-piece and the bridge of the instrument are connected. Most vase icons show kithara with seven strings, in agreement with the old authors, but these also opined that sometimes, a skillful player of the musical instrument would use more than the conventional seven strings of the kithara. The musical instrument was played with the use of a plectrum held in the right hand, with elbow outspread and palm bent inwards, while the strings with unwanted notes are damped with the straightened fingers of the player’s left hand.

The cithara was played mainly to accompany dances and epic recitations, rhapsodies, odes and lyric songs. The musical instrument was also played solo at the receptions, banquets, national games and trials of skill. The melodies from the cithara was said to be the lyre for drinking parties and is taken to be an invention Terpander. Aristotle opined that the musical instruments were not meant for educational purposes but for pleasure. The musical instrument was the virtuoso’s instrument, commonly known as taking a great deal of skill.

Sappho is closely linked with music, specifically string musical instruments like the barbitos and the cithara. She was a woman of high social standing and composed songs that focused on the emotions.