Harps and lyres are musical instruments with very ancient histories.  You can find a lot of episodes regarding these musical instruments in myths and histories.  These musical instruments are described as mysterious with magical power, and such power may be led to today’s activities of music therapy and other types of therapies. Contents described may not be said as objective facts, but it is considered that some truth might have been conveyed.  We cannot deny that these episodes more or less affect the images we hold for harps and lyres.  So we would like to introduce some myths and historical episodes related to harps and lyres, and see how these musical instruments are described in them.

It seems to be comparatively everybody’s common image that the lyre was a musical instrument of Apollo’s.  Being a son of Zeus, Apollo was a spiritual and graceful quiet young man, and a god of music as well as a god of medical treatment, archery, and trust.  He was an excellent lyre player and it was said that he won at a musical competition with Marsyas, who was a player of aulos recorder.  The lyre symbolized an aspect of Apollo’s, and since it representedd intelligent temperance,　controlled moderation, and balanced spirit, in Greek education system it was largely used as musical instruments appropriate for children to foster the ability to maintain the sense and control towards law and discipline.

With　Apollo, in Greek myths, the one deeply connected with a lyre is Orpheus, who was said to have inherited Apollo’s lyre from him.  Orpheus is a son of Oeagrsu, King of Thracia, and Calliope, a goddess of art, (though there was an opinion that his father was Apollo), and seemed to be an excellent musician as a singer and a lyre player.  His performance fascinated not only people and animals but also even stones and trees, and was famous in purifying sins, curing illness and softening gods’ anger.  After his wife Euryudeice died bitten by a snake, Orpheus went to the Underground to bring her back.  He charmed Hades with his beautiful voice, playing the lyre.  Yet, as he did not keep a promise with Hades and looked back on his way to return to the ground, he lost Euryudeice forever.  Grief-stricken, he avoided meeting other people and at the end he was killed limb from limb by the jealous women of Thracia.  Later, his head and lyre drifted to the island of Lesvos through River Peplos and his head was buried by inhabitants of the island.  It is said that his lyre was taken up to the heaven by a goddess and became a constellation, Lyra.

There are more episodes in Greek myths regarding lyres, though they are not as famous as stories about Apollo or Orpheus.  Amphion, a son of Zeus like Apollo, was said to have moved stones with a sound of his lyre and built the castle wall of Thivai.  Also Achilles and Heracles were trained to be gentle and refined characters by playing the lyre.

Thus, the lyre had an important role in the myths, and there have been a lot of opinions on its origin.  enerally known is that Hermes made a lyre out of tortoiseshell but there were various descriptions regarding its details.  Some said the beginning of a lyre was when Hermes went to steal Apollo’s cow, he picked up a tortoiseshell, covered it with a cowhide and put 17 strings-- there are many opinions with regards to the number of strings and some said there were 6, or 7, or 9 strings.  Some said that he made a lyre by killing a tortoise he met on his way, or made it with two horns of a goat as a crosspiece with strings from bowels of a sheep, or at first, the strings were three and a high tone is taken from “summer”, a low one from “winter”, and a middle one from “spring”.

Pythagoras, a Greek mathematician and philosopher, was one of the deeply connected persons with lyres.  He liked the lyre most among other stringed instruments, and made each string of seven correspond to an astronomical object.  He also considered the body of the lyre to represent the body of a human being, strings to represent the nerves, and music to represent the spirit.  He thought that by playing those strings, the spirit would be harmonized.  The people of the Pythagoras school, who inherited his ideology, played the lyre in the morning to make themselves quick in action, and at night to remove worries of the day and be prepared to dream something prophetic in their dreams.  Kleinias, one of the members of the Pythagoras school, played the lyre to purify and calm down his own heart, suppressing his anger.

Legends regarding harps have been transmitted from generation to generation in Ireland as well.  There is a story how Dagda, who was praised to be a great king, rescued a harpist caught by the enemy.  According to the legend, when Dagda ordered a harp to come to him, it slipped out of a hoop by itself and went to him.  With the magic harp, Dagda started to pay three melodies.  When the first tune was played, women started to cry, when the next was played the women rolled about with laughter, and when the third was played those who were there all slept.  There is a story, telling us that the three strings have characters.  Namely, each of the three strings had power to bring grief, laughter and sleep to people who listened to the tune.

You would sometimes come across with legends in Ireland and those handed down in Celts, with topics of musicians and heroes who gained a victory with mysterious power of harps.  A story that Taliesin, a Welsh minstrel, helped a nymph caught in a castle is one of them.  When he started to sing a song playing the harp, there was a strong wind and it shook the castle.  Then the chain that caught the nymph came off, and the nymph could escape from the castle safely.  There is also a legend in Scotland that a beautiful girl harpist who was caught by a Giant was rescued by a knight who made the Giant sleep by playing the harp, and won the victory.

In legends there sometimes appear harps made from a body of a dead person.  In Ballads, Scotland, there lived certain two sisters.  A harp was made from the younger one who was killed by the elder.  The body of the harp was made from the younger sister’s bones, strings from her hair, and the pin for tuning from her fingers.  But on the elder sister’s wedding day, the harp took revenge on her sin. Also in Scandinavia, there is a story handed down that a harpist who was killed by a frightening woman took revenge on her with the harp made from her body.  Thus, harps made from the dead were considered that their spirits dwelled.

Quite often harps have been described with angels in paintings and sculptures, so they have given the images of sacred musical instruments, but on the other hand they have been connected to devils as well.  For example, a devil that lived in Tara, Ireland, made people sleep with the sweet tune of his harp and tried to destroy the town while they were sleeping.  In Scotland there is a rock (known as Clarsach,　) meaning a harp, and it is said that on that rock a devil was playing the harp.  A. Kinnaird and K. Sanger mention in their book about a history of the harp and that harps are beautiful and dangerous musical instruments having a nature to make people fascinated, but on the other hand, it has an aspect to make people shudder.  This expresses well about the nature of the harp with two characters.

Harps are also connected to sirens, or mermaids, that were monsters, appeared in various poems and stories, beginning with Homer’s “Odysseia”.  They rang out their bewitching beautiful voices and seduced sailors to death.  The lower halves of their bodies were either of birds or fish, but their upper halves were of beautiful maidens and they were mostly talked about with the images of temptation.  Their greatest weapon was their singing voices but there are a lot of paintings or sculptures of sirens or mermaids holding harps. So when people see harps there are many who are reminded of sirens and mermaids.

n the Bible, the oldest writing in the world, there appear various kinds of musical instruments like harps, drums, tambourines, or castanets.  In general, harps appear in the Books of Samuel and the Books of Kings in the Bible, and were spread by David, the writer of Psalms.  By playing his harp, David, a harpist, saved King Saul, who was troubled by devils. This shows as one of examples that music was used as a therapy.  In 4000 B.C., about 3000 years before David’s harp was mentioned in 1000 B.C., in The Book of Genesis of the Old Testament, (the beginning of the history: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.) , a person called Jubal is described, “He was the father of all such as handle the harp and flute.” (The book of Genesis: 004:021) The first musical instruments described in the Bible were the harp and flute, so apparently Jubal was the leading person of the harp and flute.  The following is Jubal’s family tree.

The three sons of Lamech were given the social roles as an instructor, an artist, and a nomad.

Tubalcain was a blacksmith, and metalsmith, Jubal a player, musician, and artist, and Jabal 
a keeper of sheep, and nomad.

From “Study Bible” (The New International Version), the explanation is written as follows:

Jabal…Jubal…Tubalcain, Lamech’s three sons had similar names, each derived from a Hebrew verb meaning “to bring, carry, lead,” and emphasizing an activity. Tubalcain’s name was especially appropriate, since “Cain” means “metalsmith.”

Reference:  Please see the descriptions of “Harps” in the Bible.

Places and generations where myths and histories were born vary, but you can find a lot of descriptions on harps and lyres in them.  The sound of harps and lyres has been told that it is what gives calmness to hearts and peace of mind to players and listeners.

Apollo’s lyre: “harmony” and “balance”.
Orpheus’s lyre: “calmed down god’s anger”.
Achilles and Heracles:  “being trained to be gentle and refined characters”. 
Pythagoras:　“brought harmony to the spirit”.
Kleinias, a member of the Pythagoras school: “surpressing his anger, calmed down his heart.
David, a harpist:  “drove an evil away”.
A legend of Scotland:  “made the Giant sleep”.
Devils in Ireland:  “made people sleep”.

Thus, it has been considered that the sound of harps and lyres is effective to make people calm down and have peace of mind.  The same has been reported not only in myths and histories but also present activities of music therapy.  Also these episodes are considered as a reflection of the nature that the sound of harps and lyres has, or effects that have given to people in one way or the other.

There had been a lot of other episodes that harps and lyres connected to gods or devils, not to human beings.  The lyre was Apollo’s, namely god’s musical instrument, and Dagda of Ireland, who played the magic harp was also a god.  In Ireland and Scotland, devils played the harps.  In paintings and sculptures, harps were often painted as musical instruments of angels or mermaids.  Such legends and paintings tell us how harps and lyres were deeply connected to another world.  From a story about Orpheus, who played the lyre to bring back his wife from the Underground, or an episode about the harp made from the dead person, we can take in the connection with the Another World that harps and lyres have.