e of its features. The construction of
the cithara can fortunately be accurately studied from two actual
specimens found in Egypt and preserved in the museums of Berlin and
Leiden. The Leiden cithara (fig. 2), which forms part of the d'Anastasy
Collection in the Museum of Antiquities, is in a very good state of
preservation. The sound-chest, in the form of an irregular square (17
cm. X 17 cm.), is hollowed out of a solid block of wood from the base,
which is open; the little bar, seen through the open base and measuring
21/2 cm. (1 in.), is also of the same piece of wood. The arms, one short
and one long, are solid and are fixed to the body by means of wooden
pins; they are glued as well for greater strength. W. Pleyte, through
whose courtesy the sketch was revised and corrected, states that there
are no indications on the instrument of any kind of bridge or attachment
for strings except the little half-hoop of iron wire which passes
through the base from back to front. To this the strings were probably
attached, and the little bar performed the double duty of sound-post and
support for strengthening the tail-piece and enabling it to resist the
tension of the strings. The oblique transverse bar, rendered necessary
by the increasing length of the strings, was characteristic of the
Egyptian cithara,[1] whereas the Asiatic and Greek instruments were
generally constructed with horizontal bars resting on arms of equal
length, the pitch of the strings being varied by thickness and tension,
instead of by length. (For the Berlin cithara see LYRE.)

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Nero Citharoedus (_Mus. Pio-Clementino_),
showing back of a Roman Cithara.]

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Ancient Egyptian Cithara from Thebes. Museum of
Antiquities, Leiden.]

The number of strings with which the cithara was strung varied from 4 to
19 or 20 at different times; they were added less for the purpose of
increasing the compass in the modern sense than to enable the performer
to play in the different modes of the Greek musical system. Terpander is
credited with having increased the number of strings to seven; Euclid,
quoting him as his authority, states that "loving no more the
tetrachordal chant, we will sing aloud new hymns to a seven-toned
phorminx."

What has been said of the scale of the lyre applies also to the cithara,
and need therefore not be repeated here. The strings were vibrated by
means of the fingers or plectrum ([Greek: plektron], fr