The musical instruments in use were the lyre and kithara and the flute, with some other less common varieties of stringed instruments. The kithara, the instrument of professional musicians, had a sounding-board and hollow arms of wood. The strings extended from the “yoke,” a cross-piece connecting the arms, to the sounding-board. The kithara was usually played standing, and was hung by a band to the performer’s shoulders. He played with both hands, using the plectron or “pick” in his right. A rather rude terracotta from Cyprus in Case 1 represents a woman with a kithara, a terracotta statuette of Eros with a kithara is in Case K in the Seventh Room, and a wall-painting in the Eighth Room represents a lady playing one (see fig. 21). Kithara players in festal costume at the public games are represented on three vases in the collection (Case K in the Third Room and Cases E and Y in the Fourth Room). Another illustration is on an amphora on the bottom of Case P in the Fifth Room, where Apollo, the god of music, stands before an altar holding his favorite instrument (fig. 90). The best representation, however, is the kithara held by a gold siren who forms the pendant of an earring exhibited in the Gold Room. The details of construction are fully worked out and the attachment of the strings can be clearly seen. Those used at public festivals were often richly ornamented with carving and inlay of semi-precious stones. [Illustration: FIG. 85. KOTTABOS-STAND] [Illustration: FIG. 86. GLASS ASTRAGALS] [Illustration: FIG. 87. GIRLS PLAYING WITH ASTRAGALS] The lyre was the usual instrument of the amateur. Boys learned to play it at school, and gentlemen were expected to be able to accompany themselves upon it at symposia. Its sounding-board was made of the shell of a tortoise covered on one side with wood. The upright pieces, curved outward and in again toward the top, were sometimes made of the horns of animals. It had a yoke near the ends of the uprights, and a bridge on the sounding-board. The strings, of sheep’s guts or sinews, varied in number from three to eleven at different periods, but seven was the usual number in the fifth century. The plectron was generally used in playing both instruments. Several good illustrations of the lyre may be seen in the Museum collection. A satyr with a lyre decorates an amphora on the shelf in Case J in the Fourth Room. On the bottom of Case O is an amphora showing Kephalos with a lyre (fig. 88), and on the shelf above a boy singing to the lyre will be seen in the interior of a kylix. A man holding a lyre, probably a guest at a symposium, decorates the inside of a kylix in Case E. An interesting little bronze figure in Case C 2 in the Third Room represents a musician in festival dress with the same instrument. The statuette was probably a votive offering for success in a contest. [Illustration: FIG. 88. YOUTH WITH A LYRE] [Illustration: FIG. 89. GIRL DANCING AND PLAYING THE CASTANETS]