Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

7210 LYRlA. LYRA.
43) which happened in B. c. 459 and 214. In selves however attributed the invention of the lyre
these cases the lustrum was not performed on ac- to Hermes, who is said to have formed the instrucount of some great calamities which had befallen s ment of a tortoise-shlell, over which he placed gutthe republic. strings. (Hom. fIymn. inAiferc.; Apollod. iii. 10. ~ 2;
The time when the lustrum took place has been Diodor. v. 75; Serv. ad Vig y. Georg. iv. 464.) As
very ingeniously defined by Nieblhr (Hist. of'Ronm. regards the original number of the strings of a lyre,
i. p. 277). Six ancient Romtllinn years of 304 the accounts of the ancients differ so widely, that
days each were, with the difference of one day, it is almost impossible to arrive at any definite
equal to five solar years of 365 days each, or the conclusion. Diodorus (i. 16) states that Hermes
six ancient years made 1824 days, while the five gave his lyre three strings, one with an acute, the
solar years contained 1Q25 days. The lustrum, or other with a grave, and the third with a middle
the great year of the ancient Romans (Censorin. sound. Macrobius (Sat. i. 19) says that the lyre
de Die Niat 1 8), was thus a cycle, at the end of of Mercury had four strings, which symbolically
which, the beginning of the ancient year nearly represented the four seasons of the year; while
coincided with that of the solar year. As the co- Lucian (Deor. Dial. 7), Ovid (Fast. v. 106), and
incidence however was not perfect, a month of 24 others, assume that the lyre from the first had
days was intercalated in every eleventh lustrum. seven strings. All ancient writers who mention
Now it is highly probable that the recurrence of this invention of Hermes, apply it to the name
such a cycle or great year was, from the earliest lyra, though its shape in this description of Apoltimes, solemnized with sacrifices and purifications, lodorus and Servius rather resembles that of the
and that Servius Tullius did not introduce, them, instrument which in subsequent times was debut merely connected them with his census, and signated by the name cithara (KIcOapa or icOapLs),
thus set the example for subsequent ages, which and in some degree resembled a modern guitar, in
however, as we have seen, was not observed with as far as in the latter the strings were drawn across
regularity. At first the irregularity may have the sounding bottom, whereas in the lyra of later
been caused by the struggles between the patri- times they were free on both sides. In the Hocians and plebeians, when the appointment of cen- meric poems the name Avpa does not occur, with
sors was purposely neglected to increase the dis- the exception of the Homeric hymn to Hermes
orders; but we also find that similar neglects took and from the expression which occurs in this hymn
place at a later period, when no such cause ex- (423), XAppl cLOapiSeiv, it appears that originally
isted. (Sueton. Alg. 37, Clazted. 16.) The last there was very little or no difference between the
lustrum was solemnized at Rome, in A. D. 74, in two instruments, that is to say, the instrument
the reign of Vespasian. (Censorin. I. c.) formerly used was a cithara in the later sense of
Many writers of the latter period of the republic the word.
and during the empire, use the word lustrum for The instruments which Homer mentions as used
any space of five years, and without any regard to to accompany songs are the dopuluYS and Iciapts.
the census (Ovid. Fast. ii. 183, iv. 701, Amor'. (II. i. 603, Od. viii. 248 and 261.) Now that
iii. 6. 27; Horat. Cartn. ii. 4. 24, iv. 1. 6), while the 0(ppguyt and the tKciapts were the same instruothers even apply it in the sense of the Greek pen- ment, appears to be clear from the expression pap-.
taeteris or an Olympiad, which only contained four uyyi KtciOapisLet, and CiOapL 5(POPUigULV. (Od. i. 153,
years. (Ovid. ea Pont. iv. 6. 5, &c.; Mart. iv. &c.) The lyra is also called XAvsr, or XEXdV,,
45.) Martial also uses the expression lustrum and in Latin testzudo, because it was made of a
ingens for saeculum. tortoise shell.
(Compare Scaliger, de Ersiend. Temnpor. p. 183; The obscurity which hangs over the original
Ideler, clandb. der C/'onol. ii. p. 77, &c.) [L. S.] number of strings of the lyre, is somewhat removed
LYCAEA (Akvmcaia), a festival with contests, ce- by the statement made by several ancient writers,
lebrated by the Arcadianls in honour of Zeus sur- that Terpander of Antissa (about B. c. 650) added
named AucKa7os. It was said to have been instituted to the oriainal number of four strings three new
by the ancient hero Lycaon, the son of Pelasgiss. ones, and thus changed the tetrachord into a hepta(Paus. viii. 2. ~ 1; Strab. viii. p. 388.) He is also chord. (Euclid. Inteod. Harm. p. 19; Strab. xiii.
said, instead of the cakes which had formerly been p. 618; Clem. Alex. Strnom. vi. p. 814, ed. Potter),
offered to the god, to have sacrificed a child to Zeus,
and to have sprinkled the altar with its blood. It is
not improbable that human sacrifices were offered
in Arcadia to Zeus Lycaeuls down to a very late
period in Grecian history. (Porphyr. de A1bstin. ii. 27.) No further particlslars respecting the
celebration of the Lycaea are known, with the exception of the statement of Plutarch (Caes. 61),
that the celebration of the Lycaea in some degree
resembled that of the Rotnan Lupercalia. [L. S.]
ILYCHNU'CHUS. [CANDE[.ABRUM.]
LYRA (Xipa, Lat. fides), a lyre, one of the
most ancient musical instruments of the stringed
kind. There can scarcely be any doubt that this
and similar instruments were used by the Eastern
nations and by the Egyptians, long before the
Greeks became acquainted with them, and that
they were introduced among the Greeks from Asia
Minor. (Wilkinson's ifanceers and Cust. of the A.c,,sq.ypt. ii. pp. 272, 288, &c.) The Greeks them