[Illustration:  PLATE 127]

Three varieties of the lyre are seen in the Assyrian sculptures.  One of them is triangular, or nearly so, and has only four strings, which, being carried from one side of the triangle to the other, parallel to the base, are necessarily of very unequal length.  Its frame is apparently of wood, very simple, and entirely devoid of ornament.  This sort of lyre has been found only in the latest sculptures. [PLATE CXXVI., Fig. 4.]

Another variety nearly resembles in its general shape the lyre of the Egyptians.  It has a large square bottom or sounding-board, which is held, like the Egyptian, under the left elbow, two straight arms only slightly diverging, and a plain cross-bar at top.  The number of strings visible in the least imperfect representation is eight; but judging by the width of the instrument, we may fairly assume that the full complement was nine or ten.  The strings run from the cross-bar to the sounding-board, and must have been of a uniform length.  This lyre was played by both hands, and for greater security was attached by a band passing round the player’s neck. [PLATE CXXVII., Fig. 2.]

The third sort of lyre was larger than either of the others, and considerably more elaborate.  It had probably a sounding-board at bottom, like the lyre just described, though this, being carried under the left elbow, is concealed in the representations.  Hence there branched out two curved arms, more or less ornamented, which were of very unequal length; and these were joined together by a cross-bar, also curved, and projecting considerably beyond the end of the longer of the two arms.  Owing to the inequality of the arms, the cross-bar sloped at an angle to the base, and the strings, which passed from the one to the other, consequently differed in length.  The number of the strings in this lyre seems to have been either five or seven. [PLATE CXXVIII., Figs. 2, 3.]

[Illustration:  PLATE 128]

The Assyrian guitar is remarkable for the small size of the hollow body or sounding-board, and the great proportionate length of the neck or handle.  There is nothing to show what was the number of the strings, nor whether they were stretched by pegs and elevated by means of a bridge.  Both hands seen to be employed in playing the instrument, which is held across the chest in a sloping direction, and was probably kept in place by a ribbon or strap passed round the neck. [PLATE CXXVIII., Fig. 1.]

It is curious that in the Assyrian remains, while the double pipe is common, we find no instance at all either of the flute or of the single pipe.  All three were employed in Egypt, and occur on the monuments of that country frequently; and though among the Greeks and Romans the double pipe was more common than the single one, yet the single pipe was well known, and its employment was not unusual.  The Greeks regarded the pipe as altogether Asiatic, and ascribed its invention to Marsyas the Phrygian, or to Olympus, his disciple.  We may conclude from this that they at any rate learnt the invention from Asia; and in their decided preference of the double over the single pipe we may not improbably have a trace of the influence which Assyria exercised over Asiatic, and thus even over Greek, music. [PLATE CXXVIII., Fig. 1.]