LYRA;
a Lyre, or Harp; an old musical Instrument, which we find painted in the Hands of Apollo; 'tis almost of a circular Form, and has a small Number of Strings, which are touch∣ed with the Fingers, some have thought the Grecian Lyre to have been the same with our Cüitarre; others say, it was an Instrument made of a Tortoise-shell, which Hercules excavated and bored Moles in, and then strung it, as Horace bears witness, and so they came to call it Testudo: You may see it bears several different Forms on the Monuments and Medals of the Ancients: Some attribute the Invention of this Instrument to Orpheus; others to Linus, some to Amphion; others again to Mercury and Apollo, as may ap∣pear by those Dialogues of Lucian concerning the Gods, where he brings in Apollo to speak thus:
He hath made an Instrument of a Tortoise-shell, whereon he plays to that Perfection, as to make me Jealous, even me who am the God of Harmony.
The Harp is also a Coelestial Sign, composed of Ten Stars, that rise at the Sign of Libra; the Scituation whereof makes as it were a kind of Harp: The Fables of the old Astronomers, would have the same to be Orpheus his Harp, which he received from Apollo, to whom Mer∣cury had made a present thereof; and that the Muses placed it among the Stars.