page_title: Cithara
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Cithara / Construction
caption_attribution_description: English: Image from a Greek vase showing a man playing a phorminx or cithara.
context_page_description: The cithara or kithara was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the yoke lutes family. In modern Greek the word kithara has come to mean "guitar", a word which etymologically stems from kithara.
  The kithara was a seven-stringed professional version of the four-stringed lyre, which was regarded as a rustic, or folk instrument. As opposed to the simpler lyre, the kithara was primarily used by professional musicians, called kitharodes. The kithara's origins are likely Anatolian. The barbiton was a bass version of the kithara popular in the eastern Aegean and ancient Anatolia.
context_section_description: The kithara had a deep, wooden sounding box composed of two resonating tables, either flat or slightly arched, connected by ribs or sides of equal width. At the top, its strings were knotted around the crossbar or yoke (zugon) or to rings threaded over the bar, or wound around pegs. The other ends of the strings were secured to a tail-piece after passing over a flat bridge, or the tail-piece and bridge were combined.
  Most vase paintings show kitharas with seven strings, in agreement with ancient authors, but those same authors also mention that occasionally an especially skillful kitharode would use more than the conventional seven strings.
caption: Greek vase drawing depicting a man playing a kithara with eight strings. Note the plectrum in his lowered left hand.
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