Lyres excavated in ancient Mesopotamia date back to 2500 BC. The recitations of ancient Greeks were accompanied by lyre playing. And the earliest picture of a lyre appears in a sarcophagus from a Bronze Age civilization on the island of Crete. So, the lyre’s been around for a long time.
A lyre can be strummed or plucked, and lyres have had different numbers of strings at various times.
I love this video of Andreas Dimetrelis attempting to play a blues scale on a Greek lyre:
I am the bestselling author of nine novels, including the Swiss Chocolate trilogy and VILLA DEL SOL, which won the 2018 Book Award in Literary Fiction from the Independent Publishers of New England.
My newest series includes the books A JINGLE VALLEY WEDDING, APRIL IN GALWAY, and ALL’S WELL IN JINGLE VALLEY.
Find my books online at Amazon, locally at Stillwater Books (Pawtucket, Rhode Island) and Ink Fish Books (Warren, Rhode Island).
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4 thoughts on “Listen Up! “L” is for Lyre”
Never heard a lyre played quite like that – know a guitarist friend, Steve Hackett, that would find this awesome.
Lyres excavated in ancient Mesopotamia date back to 2500 BC. The recitations of ancient Greeks were accompanied by lyre playing. And the earliest picture of a lyre appears in a sarcophagus from a Bronze Age civilization on the island of Crete. So, the lyre’s been around for a long time.
Martha Reynolds Writes 
Never heard a lyre played quite like that – know a guitarist friend, Steve Hackett, that would find this awesome.
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I couldn’t resist this one!
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I’ve never heard of a lyre. Interesting instrument that makes quite a sound, Thanks for sharing.
Melissa
http://fictiontoolbox.blogspot.com
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An ancient Greek instrument, Melissa. Glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for commenting 🙂
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