Ancient Greece had a culture in which music had a part in nearly all important occasions of Greek life. Choral songs, singing with musical accompaniment to lyric poetry, and dancing were important features of Greek culture and were found in most processions, rites, celebrations, and even funerals. It has long been known that Ancient Greek musical practice and theory influenced and formed the basis for Western medieval musical theory, terminology, and philosophy. What is perhaps not as widely known is that Ancient Greece also influenced the music, the musical practice, and instruments of Byzantium. After all it should not be forgotten that most Ancient Greek musical treatises were preserved in Byzantine manuscripts.

The ancient Greeks performed on various instruments, many of which were transmitted into Byzantium in their original morphology or at the least were prototypes for medieval Byzantine instruments. The stringed instruments of Ancient Greece were the most important and the most frequently used of all the instruments of the Greeks. The stringed instruments can be categorized into the three types of lyre, harp, and lute and were known by a variety of nomenclatures. The reed, wind, and percussion instruments, since they served a subsidiary purpose, were less important. Only by examining the instruments and music of Ancient Greece can the influences transmitted into Byzantium be acknowledged.

Among the reed instruments , the most common in Ancient Greece was the aulos. In the treatise About Music written by Aristides Quintilianus (sometime between the first and fourth centuries C.E.), he writes:

From this description we are able to discern softer/weaker (feminine) and louder/stronger (masculine) sounds. on the auloi. Because of the wide ambitus of pitches, a consort of auloi was available during Antiquity, although one should not assume any type of ensemble playing. Rather the Pythian aulos because of its threnodic nature was used to accompany the Pythic nomoi and paeans and the Choric aulos because of its high range was used to accompany dithyrambs. The aulos was transmitted into early Byzantium where it was used in symposia and was therefore an instrument of ill-repute. For the aulos, according to Aristides, "cultivates what is the leader of the worse portions."

Another piped instrument was the syrinx (vurigges) or panapipes , which was also found in Byzantium. The syrinx is important for being the ancestor to the hydraulis or water organ which was invented around the third century B.C.E. and found in early Byzantium. There were also wind instruments such as the curved horns (kerata) and straight trumpets (salpinx). Aristides Quintilianus referred to the salpinx as "a warlike and terrifying instrument." Aristides further stated that "among the wind instruments, one would declare the salpinx masculine because it is vehement..." The percussion instruments were numerous and could include tambourines (tympana), castanets/rattles (krotola), and cymbals (kymbala).

All of the above-mentioned reed, horn, and percussion instruments made their way into Byzantium, but since nomenclature of instruments or organa was so confusing, different names could possibly refer to the same instruments. The reed, wind, and percussion instruments were most often members of the Imperial Wind Band, that was known for its use of strong instruments. The Imperial Band was louder than the Fine Orchestras that were known for using the weak sounding instruments, that is mostly stringed instruments. Among the organa of the Imperial Band, there were trumpets (salpinx), horns (now called boukina), flutes (auloi), pipes (syrinx, souroulis), metallic rattles (seistra), drums (tympana), and cymbals (kymbala, cheirokymbala, and/or anakara).

During the different epochs of Greek Antiquity, there were many stringed instruments, some of which are more historically important than others. From the writings of Homer, who relates traditions from the Mycenaean Bronze Age and later, the lyre was called a "phorminx" and "kithara". Of the two, the proper Homeric name was the phorminx, whose etymology is non-Greek and probably from a non-Indo-European language. The performance on the phorminx was referred to as "kitharis"--hence one can see the derivative from where kithara evolved. The phorminx was the instrument associated most often with Apollo or his twin sister Artemis, who represented the hunt, dance, and also phorminxes. On rare occasions the phorminx could be associated with mortal muscians.

In his epics, Homer describes Apollo performing a "curved phorminx" (phormingi glaphurei) with a "golden plektron." For the act of performance of the instrument, Homer uses the verb "kitharizein" . Homer also refers to the phrominx as bright sounding (ligus) and ornate (daidaleos) in decoration. Homer continues to give us a description of the construction of the instrument by indicating that the instrument's strings were made of sheepgut and that kollopes were used as tuning devices. The kollops over which the string was pulled was a roll of rough leather. It was the roughness which held the string in place at the crossbar. From a Byzantine writer by the name of Eustathius, we know that the kollops was a tuning device made from the hide of the necks of oxen or sheep. Because the ancient Greeks also boiled the sheep and oxen necks for the purpose of making glue, we have the derivation of the word "kolla" (glue). Because of the written descriptions and visual depictions, it can be surmised that the phorminx had a curved outline, a hollow space inside the soundbox, and a round base. Another part of the phorminx was the zugon, which although translates as "yoke", was the crossbar or bridge which joined the two arms of the instrument that could be decorated Although the phorminx is generally assumed to have seven strings, this number will vary in the various visual depictions which can show as few as two or three strings. The phorminx also had attached to it 1) a wrist sling which was used in performance and 2) a plektron on a cord.

The Greek form of the kithara, which is also etymologically of non-Greek origins, begins to appear regularly in the late 8th century B.C.E. as a heart-shaped flat-based instrument. The first preserved reference to the kithara, which designates a specific instrument and not a manner of playing, appears in the writings of a sixth century B.C.E. poet, Theognis of Megara. The kithara is a seven-stringed instrument, although the number of strings could vary, possibly made of wood with a crossbar that has knobs and kollopes. By the Classical period, the arms of the kithara begin to exhibit ornamentation. Above the crossbar, the arms are tall and straight but below the crossbar, each arm has a scroll with an ornamental design in the inner edges which might be of gold or ivory. Like the phorminx there is a wrist sling which allows the player to support the instrument with the left wrist. Unlike the phorminx, the kithara has a sash that hangs near the outer side of the flat-based soundbox. The plektron which was held by the right hand has a cord which attaches to the base of the bottom of the soundbox and differs from the other instruments of the lyre family where the cord of the plektron attaches to the arm of the instrument.

By the time the fifth century B.C.E. arrives, the kithara has come into common use replacing the phorminx, so that we now see visual depictions of Apollo playing a seven-voiced kithara with a golden plektron and a decorated cloth over Apollo's shoulder, which could have been used as a cushion or even a cover for the instrument. The depictions indicate that the kithara was usually played upright with its back bulging because of its large soundbox. The performer held the plektron in the right hand with the left hand fingers used to pluck or maybe even dampen strings or play harmonics. The tuning of each string was accomplished by adjusting its kollops on the crossbar. The plektron in the right hand was used to strum the strings in an outward stroke that produced a musical sound which was referred to by the two onomatopoetic words "toplatotrat" and "trettanelo". The repetition of the hard consonant "t", the most beautiful and most perfect of all the consonants, was symbolic of the sharp strumming sounds of the strings by the plektron, and was transmitted into Byzantium by means of the teretismata, which were meaningless syllables beginning with either the consonants tau (t) or rho (r) and followed by a vowel and found in Kalophonic style of Byzantine chant as a vocal interpretation of instrumental music. This author has already published a study on the "Nonsense Syllables in the Music of the Ancient Greek and Byzantine traditions," but the origins of the tau as a strumming sound of the plektron on the strings can be traced to the kithara.

Because of its larger soundbox, the kithara was considered to be a louder and a deeper resonating instrument than the phorminx. An example verifying this is a marble relief from the Sikyonian Treasury at Delphi from ca. 560 B.C.E. which shows two kithara players. Although this relief is poorly damaged, it is important for its side depictions of the two kitharas which show the large bulging backs of the soundbox that indicated depth of sound.

Based on the paintings of the kithara on vases, the kithara was performed by a highly trained professional male musician who was most often a mortal and not a god. Because of his professional standing, the kithara player wore an elaborate robe. Many kithara players performed and sang and hence were referred to by Herodotus as "kitharodes" (kitharoidos). From the late fifth century, the most famous kitharode was Timotheus of Miletos, who was known for his poetic composition, the Persae. Timotheus was especially known for his kithara playing of eleven-stroke meters and rhythms, although this has also been interpreted to mean an eleven-stringed kithara.

The kithara was the most often performed musical instrument in contests and was included in musical contests, such as the Pythian Games at Delphi, the Olympic Games, and the Panathenaia in Athens. The kithara with auloi were probably used in the accompaniment of the victory odes or poetry for winners of atheletic contests. The kithara was also often used in music of procession but was again often in accompaniment with the auloi players.

Some of the ancient Greek playwrights were also composers of music for their dramas, which might include song, chorus, or both. Although the aulos was the instrument most often found in dramas, the aulos could be found with the kithara on occasion. An example would be Sophocles, the dramatist who was also a famous musician, known to be the leader of the chorus and a kithara player.

The term "lyra" was used generically to identify several stringed instruments but after 525 B.C.E. it was used more often to refer to the chelys-lyra. "Lyra" was a word borrowed into the Greek language and was often elongated as "kerkolyra." The Byzantines explained this term as an onomatopoeia describing the sound of the instrument which was derived from "krekein" and meant to pass across the strings of the instrument.

The chelys-lyra takes its name from a tortoise shell from which the soundbox was made by its inventor, the god Hermes. In its construction, the tortoise shell was covered with leather. The other parts of the chelys-lyra included a "donax," which was a cane or reed that possibly functioned as a bridge or brace for the arms. The "pecheis" were the arms of the lyra that entered the soundbox from the front. The "zugon" or crossbar was notched across the upper ends of the arms to which the seven strings of sheepgut were attached. The chelys-lyra had the same kollopes and plektron as the kithara, but the plektron cord was attached to the base of the outer arms more often than to the base of the soundbox. The number of strings could vary to include as many as nine or fewer that seven. Around the outer arm of the instrument there was a sling for the player's left wrist and similar to the kithara there was a sash. Also, the position in which the chelys-lyra was held could vary from upright to an angle with the performer being seated or standing. The chelys-lyra was the main instructional instrument of Greece but it was also the instrument most played by amateurs. Consequently, it was the characteristic instrument found at weddings (epithalamia), symposia, and komoi, that is activities with men dancing. The chelys-lyra was also an instrument very often performed by women: either the hetairai or courtesans who entertained at the symposia or respectable women who played at weddings or for their own segregated entertainment.

Respectable women who pursued music as a professional career had probably been trained to play the chelys-lyra from childhood, either in a school or under private tutelage in their homes. There is documentary evidence that professional female musicians of this sort received monetary compensation. A respectable woman was distinguished from hetairai by the occasional citation of her name and by the obligatory citation of her patronymic and city of origin. In some instances performances were commemorated or honored with inscriptions. One such case is Polygnota, a daughter of Socrates, a Theban, who in 186 B.C.E. was paid five hundred drachmas for her chelys-lyra playing and recitations at Delphi. Her performance was cited in a decree. Furthermore, her payment of five hundred drachmas was quite a handsome amount and would be comparable to what a professional male musician would have received. Another respectable professional Greek female musician known for performing in theaters and festivals was the daughter of Aristocrates of Cyme, who gave a concert also at Delphi in the middle of the second century B.C.E.

Another stringed instrument is the barbitos that has long been associated with Sappho, Alcaeus, and the island of Lesbos. The inventors credited for the barbitos have been Terpander but also Anakreon, who follows historically but who probably imported the instrument to Athens. It is uncertain but the word "barbitos" is probably from Phrygian etymology. In the dialect of Lesbos the instrument was referred to as a "barmos," that is a lyre for drinking parties. "Barbitos" is the Attic or Athenian dialect. The barbitos was similar to the chelys-lyra making it a member of the lyre family but it was longer with longer strings producing a lower range of pitches. Usually the barbitos had seven strings. The barbitos has come to be associated with lyric poets and especially the women lyric poets: Erinna, Nossis, Anyte, and Corinna of Boeotia. Also, by the fifth century B.C.E. the barbitos had become the chief stringed instrument (along with the aulos) at the symposia or drinking parties. The barbitos also came to be associated as the instrument of choice at the Oschophoria Festivals, where young men dressed in women's clothing.

There are also lesser important string instruments. According to Maas and Snyder, the pektis has been described as a triangular harp, mostly a woman's instrument, that had two sets of strings side by side with the second string tuned at the octave of the first. However to demonstrate the descrepancies in the instruments of Antiquity, Winnington-Ingram identifies the pektis as a pear-shaped lute-type instrument. What scholars are in agreement is that the word "pektis" is derived from Greek origins. Another stringed instrument from Greek origins is the trigonon, which literally means three-cornered or triangle. Obviously, this instrument was triangular in shape. Another stringed instrument was the iambuke, which was either a harp or lute, but along with the trigonon it was not held in high esteem as proven by the following excerpt:

There were also harps in the later half of the fifth century B.C.E.: the frame spindled harp which disappears, the arched angle harp and the wooden frame harp which continue. None of these harps were bowed. By the fourth century B.C.E., harps are referred to by the generic name of "psalterion" (plucked instrument), which is one of several names transmitted into Byzantium for harps. Another lesser known name for harp or psaltery in Ancient Greece was the magadis, which was a plucked instrument of twenty strings. Aristoxenos, the fourth B.C.E. Greek theorist, stated that the twenty strings were sounded by bare fingers without a plektron. Aristoxenos also believed that the pektis and magadis were the same instruments, because both were played so frequently by women musicians.

In the Classical period of the late fourth century B.C.E., the instruments of the lute family first appear. There were two basic types of lutes: 1) a lute with an almond-shaped soundbox and 2) a lute with a larger more rectanglar soundbox. Common names for lutes were the skindapsos (four-stringed instrument), pandoura and tamboura, both three-stringed instruments. These lute instruments were the direct descendants of some of the stringed instruments found in Byzantium.

Aristides Quintilianus characterizes some of the stringed instruments according to gender, as he did with the wind instruments. He states:

It is not surprising that Aristides characterizes as feminine the ignoble string instruments that were associated with symposia and the komoi. The kithara and the chelys-lyra were the more respected of the later string instruments, hence they were masculine in gender.

The stringed instruments in Byzantium were most often members of the Fine Orchestra, which consisted of string instruments that were either hand-played or bowed. Among the instruments in this orchestra is the Byzantine lute which was directly transmitted from antiquity with its almond shape and seven strings and was called by the names of either "laouto" or pandoura, the latter being the name from Antiquity. Another member was the Byzantine Psalterion, which was also known as the Kanonaki or even by the more loose confusing nomenclature of harp or kithara. The Psalterion another direct descendant from antiquity was known for its many strings--at least twenty in number. Another descendant of the Greek lute family in Byzantium was the tambouras, which usually appeared in a consort of soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. Another derivative was the Byzantine Fandouros with its three strings which was also called a Thamboura, the latter name perhaps being derived from the Thracian or Thamyras Kithara. There were, of course other instruments in the Fine Orchestra, such as the kapadocian kemane, the large pear-shaped lyra, and the Byzantine violes.

The Byzantines also used organs to accompany singing and for much of their secular instrumental music. The hydraulic organ from Antiquity was in use until around the fourth century C.E. Although it is known that the hydraulic organ was mostly performed by male professional musicians, women have also been linked with the hydraulic organ from its inception. It is a documented fact that Thais, a Greek from the third century B.C.E., is the earliest known woman organist and that her husband is said to have invented the hydraulic organ. As the hydraulic organ was gradually phased out in early Byzantium, it was replaced by a more sophisticated pneumatic organ made out of wood and 60 copper pipes, which was used in many Byzantine secular occasions, such as at the Hippodrome (circus), in processions, and at receptions and banquets at the Imperial Palace. The Byzantine Emperor's organ was known as the "golden organ" because parts of its pipes were covered with gold. There were also silver organs, for festive court occasions, representing the political factions of Byzantium, the Greens and the Blues.

However, returning to Ancient Greece, it is known that dancing was an important part of the musical culture. There are countless vase depictions of scenes of processional dance in which the participants can be men or women or both in the presence of musical instruments. In the dance processions, hands might be held or at times branches of leaves are held between dancers. There is a great variety of dancing exhibited with stringed instruments and percussive rattles. Some of the varieties of dancing can be distinguished by the clothing (or lack of) worn by the dancer. More often than not the dancers were professional women dancers. The pyrrhic dance was often danced by a woman using the motions of combat and performed wearing a shield, helmet, and spear for a group of male warriors. Another category is the acrobatic dance which involved gymnastic abilities such as somersaults and the like and was usually performed nude. These dances were probably performed at the komoi and at symposia. Then there is the category of processional dances which includes many varieties of round dancing and even dancing in pairs. The processional round dancing is the one most often depicted but with a variety of poses,. such as elbows out with hands-on-hip pose; clenched fists that are held high; and one hand on waist with the other arm high and directly in front of the body. There are kalathiskos (dance steps) which show dancers on their toes or even with a bended knee on the ground. The processional dancing usually featured young maidens that were dressed in a tight-fitting chiton.that could be performing at a Parthenia (choral hymns sung by virgins usually to the accompaniment of the aulos) or Epithalamia (wedding songs).

The participation of women in Ancient Greek dancing was quite common and accepted. Although symposia continued into Byzantium, the participation of women performing musical instruments or dancing was short-lived. The beginnings of Christianity brought great change to Greek culture and to the role of Greek women in all aspects of society. This author has already examined the role of Greek women in music from Antiquity to the end of the Byzantine empire in another study and thus I will not focus on this topic now. From the many admonitions of the Church Fathers in the patristic writings, we know that dancing did continue at theater productions, ballets, pantomimes, banquets, and at Imperial court ceremony. The dancers, however, by the middle and late empire were mostly males. It is possible to document that processional round dancing continued into Byzantium. An example can be found in Constantine Porphyrogenitus' Book of Ceremonies Book I , Chapter 74 "Protocol Observed at a Ballet, Namely a Dinner [for a Feast of the Emperor]." In this observance a ballet is featured with dancers. Although the choreography is not described in great detail, there is no doubt that there is round dancing and that it is begun by the domesticos of the schools followed by his numbers, the captain, the tribunes, and curates and male citizens who encircle the table of the Emperor three times each while holding handings together.

The music and musical instruments of Ancient Greece did not die with the end of an era but continued into the empire of Byzantium. Some of the instruments were transmitted in their original morphology, such as the psalterion, pandoura, and tamboura, names of musical instruments which can still be found in present times in the Balkans. Although the Christian society of Byzantium placed constraints on the pagan music of Ancient Greece, Greek music and processional dancing continued but under the guise of secular music which was in constant condemnation by the Church Fathers. St. John Chrysostom of the late fourth century C.E. referred to the music of the Byzantine symposia as "asmata pornika" (pornographic music) where the demons are celebrated in songs for the songs accompanied with lyre are songs to the demons (daimonon asmata). The practice of profane music and symposia was also condemned by Clement of Alexandria and Basil of Caesarea. Basil especially condemned the practice of performing the Greek lyre and other instruments from Antiquity at symposia, because it increased the drunkenness brought on by wine. As another carry over from Antiquity, the early instrumentalists performing the symposia of the third and fourth centuries C.E. were women. As the status of women in Byzantine society changed, the later performers (fourteenth and fifteenth centuries) were men. However, in spite of all the condemnations and admonishments of the Church Fathers of the Empire, musical instruments from Ancient Greece were transmitted into Byzantium and their remnants can even be found in present day instruments of the Balkans, thus perhaps proving that an ethnomusicological Greek tradition can be traced back to Ancient Greece.