om [Greek:
plessein], to strike; Lat. _plectrum_, from _plango_, I strike).
Twanging with the fingers for strings of gut, hemp or silk was
undoubtedly the more artistic method, since the player was able to
command various shades of expression which are impossible with a rigid
plectrum.[2] Loudness of accent and great brilliancy of tone, however,
can only be obtained by the use of the plectrum.

Quotations from the classics abound to show what was the practice of the
Greeks and Romans in this respect. The plectrum was held in the right
hand, with elbow outstretched and palm bent inwards, and the strings
were plucked with the straightened fingers of the left hand.[3] Both
methods were used with intention according to the dictates of art for
the sake of the variation in tone colour obtainable thereby.[4]

The strings of the cithara were either knotted round the transverse
tuning bar itself (_zugon_) or to rings threaded over the bar, which
enabled the performer to increase or decrease the tension by shifting
the knots or rings; or else they were wound round pegs,[5] knobs[6] or
pins[7] fixed to the zugon. The other end of the strings was secured to
a tail-piece after passing over a flat bridge, or the two were combined
in the curious high box tail-piece which acted as a bridge. Plutarch[8]
states that this contrivance was added to the cithara in the days of
Cepion, pupil of Terpander. These boxes were hinged in order to allow
the lid to be opened for the purpose of securing the strings to some
contrivance concealed therein. It is a curious fact that no sculptured
cithara provided with this box tail-piece is represented with strings,
and in many cases there could never have been any, for the hand and
arm[9] are visible across the space that would be filled by the strings,
which are always carved in a solid block.

[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Apollo Citharoedus, showing Cithara with box
tail-pieces.]

Like the lyre the cithara was made in many sizes, conditioned by the
pitch and the use to which the instrument was to be put. These
instruments may have been distinguished by different names; the
_pectis_, for instance, is declared by Sappho (22nd fragment) to have
been small and shrill; the _phorminx_, on the other hand, seems to have
been identical with the cithara.[10]

The Greek _kithara_ was the instrument of the professional singer or
citharoedus ([Greek: kitharodos]) and of the instrumentalist or
citharista ([Greek: ki